Australian police on Thursday arrested a man believed to have fought with Syrian militants and a youth who was stopped at the border allegedly planning to join Islamic State in Syria.
The pair were detained in early morning raids in Sydney, underscoring Australia's tough stance on dealing with so called "foreign fighters" heading overseas to join conflicts in countries including Syria and Iraq.
Australia has imposed some of the harshest penalties in the world on foreign fighters returning home as the country leads a push for the United Nations to adopt international standards to curb the threat they pose.