‘Jihadists talked of building an Ultimate Mowing Machine'

A jihadist gang accused of plotting suicide bombings more devastating than the 7/7 attacks on London talked of building an 'Ultimate Mowing Machine' to kill and maim.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, from Birmingham, have pleaded not guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts.

But the prosecution claims that in covert recordings made by police after the men returned from Pakistan they are heard talking about putting sharp blades on the front of a truck and "running" into people, the court heard.

Recorded speaking on September 10, they discussed an idea for a weapon that had been published in an outlawed extremist online magazine called Inspire under the headline "The Ultimate Mowing Machine".

It was an article the prosecution said the defendants were clearly aware of.

Naseer said: "So Ashik, it feel like I've been driving a monster truck, you know."

Khalid said: "Yeah and do what AQ (al Qaida) said, put that blades at the front of it and trample on everyone."

He continued later: "Just drive it into people in (a) crowded area."

The men also discussed what would happen to their bodies after they had been martyred in a suicide attack, the court heard.

In what the prosecution caled a "very telling exchange", they discussed where they would be buried in Birmingham while being watched by surveillance officers driving through the Small Heath area of Birmingham on September 11 last year. (continue reading...)