TWO men will be charged with preparing to send fighters to join the conflict in Syria, aftera year-long counter-terrorism investigation.

AFP National Manager Counter Terrorism Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan confirmed Omar Succarieh was one of the men arrested today.

He said a 31-year-old from Kuraby would be charged with providing funds to terrorist organisation Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.

Assistant Commissioner Gaughan said the man was also charged in relation to preparations for incursions into Syria with the intentions of engaging in hostile activities.

He said a 21-year-old from Baronia Heights would also be charged with two offences under the Crimes Incursions Act.

media_camera Omar Succarieh arrving at the iQraa Islamic centre in Underwood.

He said one charge was in relation to preparations for incursions into Syria with the intentions of engaging in hostile activities while the other was related to recruiting persons to engage in hostile activities in Syria.

Police will allege the men helped a “small number” of individuals.

Assistant Commissioner Gaughan said there was no information or intelligence available to police to indicate the men were involved in planning any terrorism attacks in Australia.

“This has got nothing to do with Islam, this is criminal behaviour by Australians involved in terrorist activity,” he said.

He said the arrests followed a 12-month investigation.

“We received advice from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution that there was sufficiency of evidence to progress to an overt resolution today.

“There were also some issues of public safety that we had to be cognisant of.

“This was not a hasty decision to progression to resolution today.

“Due to public safety concerns, one person in possession of a firearm and also a compound bow, we really had no option but to proceed today.”

Earlier The Courier-Mail reported two Queensland men will be charged with preparing to send fighters to join the conflict in Syria after a year-long counter-terrorism investigation.

A 21-year-old man will be charged with preparing for incursions into Syria with the intention of engaging in hostile activities. He will also be charged with recrutiing fighters to join the conflict.

About 180 police executed nine search warrants at Logan and the southern suburbs of Brisbane today.

A 31-year-old man will be charged with providing funds to the terrorist organisation Jabhat al-Nusra.

He will also be charged with preparing for incursions into Syria. AFP national manager counter terrorism Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan said the two men were not accused or suspected of planning terrorist acts in Australia.

He said the 31-year-old was Omar Succarieh. He is the brother of Australia’s first suicide bomber to die in Syria, Ahmed Succarieh.

media_camera Police stand guard after the raids at the iQraa Centre at Logan. Pic Annette Dew

Mr Gaughan said weapons were found during the raids, including a gun and a crossbow.

He said there were no other suspects in Australia in relation to the year-long investigation, codenamed Operation Bolton.

But he said there were links to Syria and the investigation was ongoing.

Mr Gaughan said there was no indication of plans for a terror attack on Australian soil, nor was there any threat aimed at the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane in November.

The arrests followed the raids in Brisbane and in Logan to the south, including on the iQraa Islamic Centre in the Logan suburb of Underwood.

Mr Gaughan said there was no link to the Islamic State movement.

“This has got nothing to do with Islam. This is criminal behaviour by Australians involved in terrorist activity,” Mr Gaughan said.

“I said at the commencement when I spoke about these charges, that these charges were in relation to Jabhat al-Nusra, not Islamic State.” Jabhat al-Nusra is a Syria-based Sunni extremist group that adheres to the global jihadist ideology of al-Qaeda.

Its stated objectives are to remove the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ultimately to create a Sunni Islamist state in Syria.

In early April 2013, Jabhat al-Nusra pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and confirmed the group had received funding and operatives from al-Qaeda in Iraq (AIQ). It is a banned terrorist organisation in Australia.

Mr Gaughan said electronic records seized in Wednesday’s raids would be crucial to the investigation.

“We have seized some crossbows, we have seized a significant amount of electronic data that we need to work through, and we have seized a firearm,” he said.

media_camera Bullet holes in a window at the iQraa Islamic Centre

He would not confirm that bullet holes were found at the Islamic centre in Logan.

“We’re not going to confirm that they’re bullet holes. The forensic process needs to take its course.” He said both of the men who would be charged were linked to that centre, which sells books and other items.

“They are associated with the bookshop, we are not going to go into any further details about what that relationship is.”

Mr Gaughan tried to reassured Australians in the wake of the raids.

“I would like to stress that there is no information or intelligence available to police or security agencies at this time to indicate that these males were involved in terrorism attack planning in Australia,” he said.

He added law enforcement and security agencies were operating in a complex environment and there had been heightened operational activity in the past 12 months.

Despite no evidence of domestic terror plotting, Mr Stewart labelled today’s raids “a wake-up call”.

Commissioner Stewart said G20 security was among the items on the agenda when he met with Mr Newman this morning.

“Certainly G20 was raised but there is no known threat to any industry or to any site at this particular time,” Mr Stewart said.

AFP raid Islamic book store Australian Federal Police have raided an Islamic book store on Brisbane’s southside.

Mr Stewart made no comments on the specific details of the investigation but said a large amount of time and resources were involved.

He did reveal though that the officers had approached senior members of the Muslim community this morning prior to the raids.

Mr Stewart said it was a “quite timely” to review the national security alert.

However, he noted a rise in the security would not make for a noticeable difference in public view come G20 time.

“Suffice to say should the government take it up a notch to the next level there would be an impact behind the scenes.”

He added the role of the public in keeping Australia safe was crucial.

“We need the public’s help and if I’ve got one message to the public of Queensland that is if you see something that you are concerned about, are suspicious of, its only a phone call.

“We’d rather be getting lots of information and it could be nothing than to miss that one piece of information that would let us stop an act of terrorism.”

Earlier, it was reported an Islamic bookstore and drop-in centre south of Brisbane was raided by the Australian Federal Police this morning.

Officers were still on scene at the iQraa Islamic Centre on Logan Rd, Underwood several hours after the raid.

Two men were arrested.

At the same time, there were seven raids on homes in the suburbs of Kuraby, Underwood and Springwood.

The arrests resulted from a Joint Counter Terrorism Team investigation carried out by agencies including the Australian Federal Police and Queensland Police Service.

Holes were also found in a window at the iQraa centre, but police said it was not yet known if they were bullet holes.

Outside, a customer, Abu Amam, defended the store.

“It’s just a simple bookstore selling perfumes to Korans,” he told a media pack.

“There’s nothing radical whatsoever. I just don’t understand all the hysteria.”

Last week, The Courier Mail revealed how the store was being run by a man believed to be the brother of Australia’s first suicide bomber in Syria, who was promoting extremism among Muslims.

media_camera Abu Amam defended the store

The Courier-Mail has been told that the iQraa Islamic Centre at Underwood had developed ties to firebrand Perth preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne.

The centre this year “promoted’’ and helped raise funds for two “sermons’’ by the self-styled preacher, who is a vocal supporter of jihad and has had ties to the Australian branch of the Millatu Ibrahim group, which is banned in Germany.

A key figure in the bookshop is Omar Succarieh, who in an online promotional video is described as “one of the main brothers’’ at the centre.

Succarieh’s brother Ahmed has been investigated by Australian agencies in relation to a suicide bombing in Syria, where a truck laden with 12 tonnes of explosives was driven into an army checkpoint last September, killing 35.

But a spokesman for the store condemned the “traitorous actions” of the insider who exposed its ties to firebrand Perth preacher Thorne.

media_camera Police study the bullet holes at the iQraa centre. Pic Annette Dew

The centre responded by posting a statement on its Facebook page rejecting what it said were “ridiculous claims”.

“An unknown source who will have to stand in front of Allah on the day of resurrection has made a statement saying that ‘we need to be exposed more widely’ so the ‘community around it can be more aware of what is being promoted’ and said the ‘wider community would be alarmed’,’’ the centre posted.

“We are disgusted with the traitorous actions of this munafiq (hypocrite).”

The raids came as Premier Campbell Newman said he had sought advice from Police Commissioner Ian Stewart following news of a rising terror threat to Australia.

Australia's terror alert levels Australians may well be living with an elevated terror threat level, with our leading spy agency suggesting we officially turn up the dial on our alert system, one notch.

Also today, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay agreed it is time to review, and likely increase, Australia’s terrorism threat level.

His comments come after ASIO chief David Irvine revealed security authorities are “actively considering” raising Australian’s terrorism threat level from “medium” to “high”.

Mr Lay said the risk of a terrorist attack on home soil, linked to unrest in the Middle East, had reached a new high in the 13 years since the September 11 terror attacks in the US.

“There is no doubt that there are some concerns about what it happening in the Middle East, and some Australians who have been there and are coming back,” Mr Lay told Fairfax Radio today.