A TERRORIST group threatening to turn Australia into "pools of blood" has a cell in Melbourne, police have been told.
The Tawhid Islamic Group has been meeting in an inner-city suburb for years, and still does, police have been warned.
An undercover informer working with law enforcers uncovered the Melbourne-based Tawhid members while trying to infiltrate another Middle Eastern gang a decade ago.
He said Tawhid fundamentalists in the Middle East were "sick puppies" and compared their cruelty with the Taliban.
On Saturday, the al-Qaeda connected group threatened the Australian Government with terrorist attacks.
"We call upon you to leave Iraq before your country turns to pools of blood," the Tawhid statement said.
It also referred to the Bali bombings, which killed 88 Australians and 114 others in 2002.
The Australian Federal Police yesterday interviewed the former undercover agent about his knowledge of the Tawhid in Melbourne.
The agent provided the address of the group's meeting place and named one of its leaders.
While he has no proof the Tawhid members and supporters in Melbourne are connected to the group threatening Australia, he is certain they hold the same radical Islamic fundamentalist views.
"I told the AFP yesterday they were certainly in Melbourne 10 years ago when I came across them and it appeared they had been here for some years prior to that," said the man, who can't be identified. "I have been back to the meeting place in a cafe in recent months and the same Tawhid people are still gathering there.
"There are at least 20 of them who meet regularly."
He said some of the Melbourne-based Tawhid members were living in Tripoli, Lebanon's second biggest city, when the Tawhid group took power there in the early '80s.
The Tawhid group controlled Tripoli for about two years and imposed strict Islamic laws before eventually being driven out by Syrian troops.
"They were sick puppies back then," the former undercover agent said. "They were killing their own people in Tripoli for drinking alcohol and womanising. They wanted women to cover up.
"The Tawhid group was just like the Taliban, just as cruel. It is a sect of Islamic fundamentalists backed by Iran.
"The Melbourne members and supporters I met held similar radical Islamic fundamentalist views.
"They didn't talk about terrorist acts, but they did talk about the benefits of imposing strict Islamic laws and held anti-Western views."
An AFP spokesman last night confirmed its agents had interviewed the man.
"We have taken on board what he said and will examine his claims," the spokesman said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer yesterday said the Federal Government was working on the assumption that the Tawhid threat was credible.
But the Government had no information that anyone was planning an attack in Australia.
"People make threats the whole time and you don't necessarily at the end of the day have to give in to those threats but you just need to take them seriously," he said.
"Obviously the Federal Police, the state police forces, ASIO, our immigration and Customs officials, they're monitoring these things as best they can the whole time.
"We would only increase our alert if we had . . . credible information that there was to be some sort of attack. It is important people understand this, we don't have any such information."
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said he would not negotiate with terrorists, despite the Tawhid threat against Australia.
It was the second Tawhid threat against members of the US-led coalition in Iraq in five days.
"We are still investigating the authenticity and relevance . . . but we will not take any notice of threats of that kind," he said.
"We will not parlay and negotiate with terrorists."
