Terror plot accused 'made martyrdom videos'

Members of an alleged Islamist terrorist group accused of plotting to blow up passenger airliners made martyrdom videos declaring their intention to "die and kill" in "Allah's fires", a court heard yesterday.

The recordings, discovered in the boot of a car, threatened "floods of martyrdom operations" against unbelievers in "revenge and anger" for the actions of the United States and its "accomplices such as the British and the Jews", the jury was told.

Peter Wright QC, for the prosecution, said eight men charged with planning terrorist offences had the "cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic". He said: "The recordings of these men were significant because they amounted to recordings in which each of these men contemplated losing their lives in some violent act perpetrated by them as a perceived act of martyrdom in the name of Islam."

All eight men deny conspiring to murder and to endanger the safety of aircraft bound for the US and Canada between January and August 2006. The Crown claims that the defendants planned to kill thousands of people by blowing up at least seven passenger jets with home-made bombs.

Five of the eight made videos, the jury, at Woolwich Crown Court in south London, was told. They were found by police in a garage at the home of Assad Sarwar, 27, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Police also found 18 litres of hydrogen peroxide, wires, syringes, a thermometer and latex gloves, all allegedly used for making bombs.

A memory stick also found in the garage contained details about Canary Wharf , a gas pipeline which runs between Belgium and the UK, numerous power stations, major internet service provider exchanges, oil refineries, the National Grid, power stations and UK airports, including Heathrow's new control tower, the court heard.

Tickets and boarding passes showed that Mr Sarwar had flown from London to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in June 2006. Mr Wright said: "It is the Crown's case that he was one of those engaged in this plot with direct links to those overseas that may have a clear interest in the success of any such terrorist outrage struck in the name of Islam ... The horizon in respect of Mr Sarwar's terrorist ambition was, we say, limitless."

The jury was shown extracts from a video allegedly made by one of the defendants, Umar Islam, 29, from Plaistow, east London, in which he said he and others were "happy" because of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because Allah could make martyrs of them. "We are doing this in order to gain the pleasure of our Lord, and Allah loves us to die and kill in his fires. And anyone who tries to deny this, then read the Koran and he will not be able to deny this. We will not leave this path until you leave our lands, until you feel what we are feeling," he said.

Mr Wright told the court that another defendant, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, from Walthamstow, also known as Ahmed Ali Khan, said he had aspired to martyrdom since the age of 15 and he was now "over the moon that Allah has given me the opportunity to lead this blessed operation."

The other defendants, all from east London, are: Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, and Waheed Zaman, 23, of Walthamstow; Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Leyton; Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking; and Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington.

The case continues.