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LONDON - Five Britons were found guilty last night of plotting to carry out al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain potentially killing hundreds at targets ranging from nightclubs to trains and a shopping centre.
The gang planned to use 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support for the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
Court papers, which could be detailed only after the trial, showed police observing the gang had established links between them and two of the four British Islamists who later carried out the London suicide bombings in July 2005, killing 52 people.
Spies had seen Mohammed Sidique Khan, the suspected ringleader of the July 7 bombings, and accomplice Shehzad Tanweer with the men in the days leading up to their arrest.
Counter-terrorism experts said the gang could have produced a "formidable weapon" more powerful than some of the devices used in recent devastating attacks.
"It was the first time since 9/11 that British people were attempting to commit mass murder in the UK," said one senior detective, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Prosecutors said the men needed only to pick a target when they were arrested in 2004 before carrying out what would have been the first homegrown attack by Islamists.
After the year-long trial, Omar Khyam, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Waheed Mahmood and Salahuddin Amin were found guilty of plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
Khyam's brother Shujah Mahmood and another man, Nabeel Hussain, were found not guilty.
- REUTERS
