Australian accused of planning to help Islamic State develop missiles

Australian counterterrorism police have arrested a man who officials say was planning to advise the Islamic State group on how to develop missiles.

Australian Federal Police arrested the 42-year-old electrician during a raid at his home in the rural New South Wales town of Young on Tuesday.

Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin told reporters that the man researched and designed a laser warning device that could alert the Islamic State group to incoming guided weapons used by coalition forces in Syria and Iraq. The man is also accused of researching, designing and modelling systems to assist the extremist group's efforts to develop their own long-range guided missiles.

Colvin says the man was not planning any attack in Australia, and is believed to have been working alone.