- Three men are accused of masterminding a terror plot to detonate eight suicide bombs
- They are part of a group of 11 men and one woman who were arrested last year. Six await sentencing and two face trial next year
- 'Suspects posed as bogus charity collectors to raise money for training in Pakistan terror camps'
- 'Jihadists' spoke about blowing up their rucksacks, shooting people and blasting them with a rocket launcher, jurors were told today
- Plotters 'took their inspiration from Osama Bin Laden' and were influenced by the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US born extremist of Yemeni
Three terror suspects planned to attach knives to a car then drive into a heavily crowded area as part of an terrorist plot that could have wreaked more devastation than the July 7 attacks, a court has heard.
Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, are accused of masterminding a plot to detonate eight suicide bombs after one of the extremists claimed 7/7 attackers should have used nail bombs to inflict more damage.
The trio, said to be 'central figures' in a home-grown terror cell, posed as bogus charity collectors to raise money for training in terrorism in Pakistan, where they learned how to use weapons and make improvised explosive devices, it is alleged.
From left to right, Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, who are accused of being 'central figures' in the extremist plot to cause mass deaths and casualties
Speaking at Woolwich Crown Court, prosecutor Brian Altman QC said: 'The police successfully disrupted a plan to commit an act or acts of terrorism on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005 had it been allowed to run its course.
'The defendants were proposing to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack and/or to detonate bombs on timers in crowded areas in order to cause mass deaths and casualties.
‘One of them was even to boast the plan would be another 9/11.'
The court heard that Naseer was recorded saying the July 7 attackers did not do a good enough job because they did not use nail bombs.
Mr Altman said: 'Naseer was recorded agreeing with Mohammed Rizwan that July 7 had gone a bit wrong, really that the London bombers had not done more damage because they had failed to put nails on or in their bombs.
'They hadn't done it well enough by not attaching shrapnel to the bombs that they exploded in London on that fatal day in 2005.'
The men also spoke about blowing their rucksacks up, shooting people and even blasting them with a rocket launcher, jurors were told.
The trio had not decided on any targets or how many lives were to be claimed in an attack which they hoped would be 'bigger than 7/7.'
Mr Altman said: 'In a police interview Ali confessed the plot involved him wearing a suicide vest and carrying a gun.
'The defendants also spoke about acquiring a rocket launcher from Pakistan and different ways of killing people including bombs, guns and even the possibility of fixing blades to a vehicle and driving through a crowd of people.'
The court heard the defendants, who are all unemployed and from Birmingham, had got the idea from banned Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire.
Mr Altman said the 'jihadists,' who thought they would be rewarded with 72 virgins if they died martyrs, had not organised when the attacks would be carried out before they were arrested in September last year.
The trio were arrested by police after covert probes caught them talking about their plot as they were heating chemicals in Ali's home
But in bugged recordings Khalid was allegedly heard saying it could be 'two years or sooner....weeks' depending on how many accomplices they recruited for their evil plot.
In another recording the defendants are heard talking about an MOT on their car expiring to which one of them replies: 'We're dead by then' and then adding: 'We probably won't be here next June.'
Mr Altman told the jury how the plotters also took their inspiration from the later Al-Qaeda founder.
'The now dead Osama bin Laden was equally inspiration to them as indeed were the perpetrators of 9/11 and 7/7,' he said.
All the men are accused of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, which they deny.
Naseer is accused of five counts of the offence, Khalid four and Ali three, all between Christmas Day 2010 and September 19 2011, jurors were told.
For Nasser, from Sparkhill, Khalid, from Sparkbrook, and Ali, from Balsall Heath, all in Birmingham, this is alleged to have included planning a bombing campaign, collecting money for terrorism and recruiting others for terrorism.
Nasser and Khalid are also accused of travelling to Pakistan for training in terrorism, and it is alleged that Naseer also helped others to travel to the country for the same purpose.
While in Pakistan, Naseer and Khalid received training in how to use weapons and how to make bombs and poisons, and made suicide videos while they were there, it is alleged.
They returned to the UK in July 2011, and it is claimed the group then began trying to make home-made bombs, using a council flat in Sparkbrook as a makeshift bomb factory.
They are alleged to have planned a series of explosions at unknown targets across the UK from December 25, 2010 to September 19 last year.
In total, 11 men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin were arrested over the alleged plot, and one woman.
Mr Altman told the jury that the three defendants were 'central figures' in the plan, and that they are 'jihadists'. He called the trio 'senior members of a home-grown terror cell'.
He said: ‘The defendants are jihadist, extremists influenced by the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US born extremist of Yemeni descent.'
As well as taking part in terror training themselves, they also recruited others for their jihad, the court heard.
Naseer has a degree in pharmacy and it is alleged that his knowledge helped the plotters to try to make explosives.
Naseer, Khalid and Ali are also said to have worked with law graduate Rahin Ahmed, 26, and others to fraudulently collect money for terrorism.
They told locals in Birmingham they were collecting for Muslim Aid and a local Madrassah, a Muslim learning centre, as they pocketed £14,500.
But the two causes received only a fraction of the money they had collected, prosecutors say, while the rest was intended to fund the attack plan.
Mr Altman said they were 'despicably stealing money from their own community donated to charity'.
The gang tried to raise further funds by gambling the cash they raised from their bogus charity collections through a currency trading company.
But the bungling gang lost £9,000 of their £14,500 stake they wagered through online firm Forex.
Mr Altman told the court the trio also tried to recruit Mujahid Hussain, 21 Mohammed Rizwan, 31, and Ali’s older brother, Bahader, 29 to their cause.
Ali¿s estranged wife, Salma Kabal, 23, pictured, is accused of knowing of her husband's terrorist intentions but failing to disclose them
Warehouse workers, Shaaq Hussain, 20, and Khobaib Hussain, 20, along with Shahid Khan, 21, a law student at the University of Wolverhampton, and unemployed Naweed Ali, 24, were enlisted to travel to Pakistan so they too could attend a terror training camp.
Dubbed the ‘four travellers’, they have all admitted their part in the terror plot - despite the fact they never got to take part in any training.
The trio were arrested by police after covert probes caught them talking about their plot as they were heating chemicals in Ali’s home.
Naseer was heard drawing a list up of what they needed along with chemical formulae for bomb-making.
Mr Altman told the jury the three defendants had chosen to be terrorists.
'Each of the defendants made the deliberate decision to become a terrorist, following, what they believed to be the right path dictated by their extreme religious and ideological beliefs.
'Naseer and Khalid had made so-called martyrdom videos whilst at a training camp in Pakistan, which remained behind in readiness for their own death.'
Mr Altman told the jury Ahmed had pleaded guilty to collecting and managing the money.
He added that Naseer considered the money lost his and ordered Ahmed to take out loans and sell his Honda Civic in order to repay the cash lost.
The jury were told that the 'four travellers' Shaaq Hussain, Khobaib Hussain, Shahid Khan and Naweed Ali, as well as the fundraiser Mujahid Hussain, have all pleaded guilty.
Mohammed Rizwan, and Ali's older brother Bahader all deny their involvement with the terror cell.
Naseer denies five counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.
Khalid denies four counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts and Ali denies three counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.
Ali’s estranged wife, Salma Kabal, 23, is accused of knowing of her husband’s terrorist intentions but failing to disclose them to the authorities.
Ali had been secretly recorded telling Kabal that he was planning to head abroad for Jihad. She will be tried next year.
The trial, which is expected to last until Christmas, continues.
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