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Islamic State Supporters Guilty of Planning Deadly Gun Attack on Jewish Targets in Manchester
(Sky News-UK) Duncan Gardham - Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday of plotting a deadly gun attack on Manchester's Jewish community. They bought assault rifles, handguns and ammunition for the suicide attack they planned on Jewish targets. They saw any Christian victims "as a bonus." Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the plan would have resulted in "the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history" and the consequences would have been "catastrophic." Saadaoui "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 court. His target was the same area of Manchester where terrorist Jihad al Shamie stabbed a worshipper to death outside a synagogue on Oct. 2. 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." Saadaoui planned the attack with Amar Hussein, 52, a former Iraqi soldier. The two 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. Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Jewish charity the Community Security Trust, praised police for thwarting the plans of the "incredibly dangerous individuals" behind the plot. 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."