An extremist group responsible for planning what could have been ‘one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in UK history’ have been jailed for a total of 63 years. Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, had a ‘visceral dislike’ of Jewish people and wanted to kill as many as they could in their Islamic State-inspired gun attack in Greater Manchester.
Their plan was to target a community gathering before moving on to a British military base. Main instigator Saadaoui aimed to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition into the UK to carry out his attack. Months earlier the father-of-two, originally from Tunisia, paid a deposit for the weapons and believed he had arranged for their importation with a like-minded extremist.
Judge Mark Wall KC, referenced Hussein’s ‘cowardice’ after he refused to return to the dock for sentencing, and told the defendants that if the plot had succeeded, it would ‘likely have been one of the deadliest terror attacks ever carried out on British soil’.
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