The men, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27 and Irfan Naseer, 31, intended to cause “death and injury on a massive scale” with rucksack suicide bomb attacks, similar to previous extremist muslim bomb plots on London public transport on July 2005.
The men funded their activities by pretending to collect charitable donations for for the Muslim Aid charity, raising around £14,000 from residents of the Sparkhill area of Birmingham.
Irfan Naseer and Irfan Khalid had visited Pakistan on two occasions to visit training camps. They are thought to have been radicalised after reading al-Qaida’s ‘Inspire’ guide.
Naseer was a chemistry graduate. During the verdict, Judge Mr Justice Henriques addressed the accused man, saying “You are a highly skilled bomb maker and explosives expert. Your mindset was similarly manifest.
“You sought to persuade others that a terror plot here in this country was by far preferable to fighting jihad abroad.”
“The scale and extent of your ambition was similarly manifest. You were seeking to recruit a team of somewhere between six and eight suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11.”
“It’s clear that you were planning a terrorist outrage in Birmingham.”
Henriques told Naseer he would face “a very long minimum term”, according to the BBC.
11 men and one woman have been arrested in connection with the planned attacks.
The BBC’s Home Affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani described the men as “utter incompetents.”
They will be sentenced in April or May.
