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Greater Manchester Police said the consequences of carrying out such an attack on the Jewish community would have been "catastrop
Two Islamic State extremists have been found guilty of plotting a deadly gun attack on Manchester's Jewish community.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday.
They had bought assault rifles, handguns and ammunition for the suicide attack they planned on Jewish targets. They saw any Christian victims "as a bonus".
Image: Walid Saadaoui (L) and Amar Hussein
Saadaoui's brother, Bilel Saddaoui, 36, of Fairclough Street, Hindley, Wigan, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the pair's terror plans.
Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the plan would have resulted in "the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history".
The consequences of carrying out an attack in a crowded area on the Manchester Jewish community would have been "catastrophic", he said.
Saadaoui, the former owner of an Italian restaurant in a Norfolk seaside town, "hero-worshipped" Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks of 2015, and wanted to replicate the attacks in which 130 people were killed, the prosecution told Preston Crown Court.
He sold up, moved north and used part of the proceeds from his house sale to pay €5,000 (£4,400) as an initial payment for four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 1,200 rounds of ammunition as he planned a marauding gun attack in revenge for Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Image: Saadaoui made a payment for four Kalashnikovs also known as AK-47 assault rifles
His target was the same area of Manchester where terrorist Jihad al Shamie later stabbed a worshipper to death outside a synagogue on 2 October.
Saadaoui conducted a surveillance trip around the area with an undercover officer called "Farouk" and told him he wanted to target schools and gatherings, adding: "Young, old, women, elderly, the whole lot, killing them all."
Image: A hangun brought by Saadaoui and Hussein
Image: 1,200 rounds of ammunition were also purchased
He was caught "red-handed" by police following an undercover sting operation as he took delivery of the first shipment of weapons, supplied and deactivated by police, from the boot of a rented Lexus.
Police bodyworn footage showed him running 20 yards across the car park of the Last Drop, a Lancashire spa hotel, before he was grabbed by armed officers and brought to the ground on 8 May last year.
MI5 believe that Saadaoui had previously been in contact with an extremist called Hamid al Masalkhi from Cardiff, who had left Britain to join ISIS in 2013 but later died from cancer, sources say.
Image: Saadaoui was caught taking delivery of weapons hidden in a car boot
Saadaoui planned the attack with Amar Hussein, 52, a former Iraqi soldier who had claimed to be from Kuwait when he arrived in the UK in 2006.
Hussein, who had a previous conviction for carrying a knife, worked at Salim Appliances at Grecian Mills in Bolton and lived in a first-floor room at the premises.
The men planned to recruit two others, dress in Jewish clothing and move from place to place on an extended shooting spree that also targeted police and emergency responders.
At the home he shared with his wife and children in Abram, near Wigan, Saadaoui kept bees and green birds - a symbol of paradise in Islam - and he used his hobby to come up with a code for the purchase of firearms for the attack, calling the weapons goldfinches and the ammunition bird seed in messages to the undercover officer.
Image: Saadaoui and Hussein at the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve near Dover
Saadaoui and Hussein twice posed as tourists at the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve near Dover to observe the security checks at the port below, believing the weapons would be imported from France by the undercover officer.
Harpreet Sandhu KC, prosecuting, told the jury it "hardly had the innocence of a teddy bears' picnic".
Mark Gardner, chief executive of Jewish charity the Community Security Trust, praised police for thwarting the plans of the "incredibly dangerous individuals" behind the plot.
"To hear now that somebody was trying to obtain weapons and had put together a meticulous attack plan to go and kill as many Jews as possible, to hear that I think will make people very, very fearful.
"It may well have been the worst terrorist act in British history.
"Jews in Britain, and all over the world, have suffered terrorist attacks from the 1960s onwards. The names of the perpetrators change, the nature of the attacks is exactly the same."
He added: "The ideology of jihad is like the ideology of Nazism. They want to kill Jews. They don't care who those Jews are. They don't stop to ask these Jews what their opinion is of Israel, or whether they support Manchester United, or anything. They want to kill Jews, end of story. It's the same as Nazis."
Image: Saadaoui pictured by surveillance
'Largest and most complex' counter-terrorism investigation
Saadaoui, a former hotel entertainer originally from Tunisia, married an English woman called Jane and moved to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, in 2012 and then to Great Yarmouth, where he worked in the shop at the Haven Holiday Park.
He bought the Albatross Restaurant for £25,000 in April 2018 but closed the business four years later, sold his house in Ipswich Road for £169,000 in May 2023 and moved to Wigan with his second wife, Michelle, and two young children.
He worked briefly at a discount store in Wigan called Bonkers Prices, then gave up work, claimed universal credit and regularly posted statements from ISIS on Facebook.
Two Islamic State extremists have been found guilty of plotting a deadly gun attack on Manchester's Jewish community.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday.
They had bought assault rifles, handguns and ammunition for the suicide attack they planned on Jewish targets. They saw any Christian victims "as a bonus".
Image: Walid Saadaoui (L) and Amar Hussein
Saadaoui's brother, Bilel Saddaoui, 36, of Fairclough Street, Hindley, Wigan, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the pair's terror plans.
Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the plan would have resulted in "the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history".
The consequences of carrying out an attack in a crowded area on the Manchester Jewish community would have been "catastrophic", he said.
Saadaoui, the former owner of an Italian restaurant in a Norfolk seaside town, "hero-worshipped" Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks of 2015, and wanted to replicate the attacks in which 130 people were killed, the prosecution told Preston Crown Court.
He sold up, moved north and used part of the proceeds from his house sale to pay €5,000 (£4,400) as an initial payment for four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 1,200 rounds of ammunition as he planned a marauding gun attack in revenge for Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Image: Saadaoui made a payment for four Kalashnikovs also known as AK-47 assault rifles
His target was the same area of Manchester where terrorist Jihad al Shamie later stabbed a worshipper to death outside a synagogue on 2 October.
Saadaoui conducted a surveillance trip around the area with an undercover officer called "Farouk" and told him he wanted to target schools and gatherings, adding: "Young, old, women, elderly, the whole lot, killing them all."
Image: A hangun brought by Saadaoui and Hussein
Image: 1,200 rounds of ammunition were also purchased
He was caught "red-handed" by police following an undercover sting operation as he took delivery of the first shipment of weapons, supplied and deactivated by police, from the boot of a rented Lexus.
Police bodyworn footage showed him running 20 yards across the car park of the Last Drop, a Lancashire spa hotel, before he was grabbed by armed officers and brought to the ground on 8 May last year.
MI5 believe that Saadaoui had previously been in contact with an extremist called Hamid al Masalkhi from Cardiff, who had left Britain to join ISIS in 2013 but later died from cancer, sources say.
Image: Saadaoui was caught taking delivery of weapons hidden in a car boot
Saadaoui planned the attack with Amar Hussein, 52, a former Iraqi soldier who had claimed to be from Kuwait when he arrived in the UK in 2006.
Hussein, who had a previous conviction for carrying a knife, worked at Salim Appliances at Grecian Mills in Bolton and lived in a first-floor room at the premises.
The men planned to recruit two others, dress in Jewish clothing and move from place to place on an extended shooting spree that also targeted police and emergency responders.
At the home he shared with his wife and children in Abram, near Wigan, Saadaoui kept bees and green birds - a symbol of paradise in Islam - and he used his hobby to come up with a code for the purchase of firearms for the attack, calling the weapons goldfinches and the ammunition bird seed in messages to the undercover officer.
Image: Saadaoui and Hussein at the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve near Dover
Saadaoui and Hussein twice posed as tourists at the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve near Dover to observe the security checks at the port below, believing the weapons would be imported from France by the undercover officer.
Harpreet Sandhu KC, prosecuting, told the jury it "hardly had the innocence of a teddy bears' picnic".
Mark Gardner, chief executive of Jewish charity the Community Security Trust, praised police for thwarting the plans of the "incredibly dangerous individuals" behind the plot.
"To hear now that somebody was trying to obtain weapons and had put together a meticulous attack plan to go and kill as many Jews as possible, to hear that I think will make people very, very fearful.
"It may well have been the worst terrorist act in British history.
"Jews in Britain, and all over the world, have suffered terrorist attacks from the 1960s onwards. The names of the perpetrators change, the nature of the attacks is exactly the same."
He added: "The ideology of jihad is like the ideology of Nazism. They want to kill Jews. They don't care who those Jews are. They don't stop to ask these Jews what their opinion is of Israel, or whether they support Manchester United, or anything. They want to kill Jews, end of story. It's the same as Nazis."
Image: Saadaoui pictured by surveillance
'Largest and most complex' counter-terrorism investigation
Saadaoui, a former hotel entertainer originally from Tunisia, married an English woman called Jane and moved to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, in 2012 and then to Great Yarmouth, where he worked in the shop at the Haven Holiday Park.
He bought the Albatross Restaurant for £25,000 in April 2018 but closed the business four years later, sold his house in Ipswich Road for £169,000 in May 2023 and moved to Wigan with his second wife, Michelle, and two young children.
He worked briefly at a discount store in Wigan called Bonkers Prices, then gave up work, claimed universal credit and regularly posted statements from ISIS on Facebook.
