A man has been convicted of plotting a gun attack against the Jewish community in Manchester.

Two men have been found guilty of planning a gun attack to cause “untold harm” to the Jewish community in Manchester.

Preston Crown Court heard that Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amr Hussein, 52, had a “serious dislike” of Jewish people and had arranged to smuggle guns into Britain as part of an “ISIS-inspired plot”.

Saadaoui and Hussein were planning the attacks in collaboration with a third person.

They believed they were planning the attacks with a third person they knew as Farouq, who they believed shared their extremist views but was in fact an undercover operative.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said key instigator Walid Saadaoui had planned to carry out “possibly the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history.”

Walid Saadaoui and Hussein, of Abram, Wigan, of no fixed abode, were found guilty of preparing terrorist acts between 13 December 2023 and 9 May 2024.

A third man, 36-year-old Bilel Saadoui, Saadoui’s younger brother, has been convicted of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts.

Walid Saadaoui’s goal was to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition to Britain.

A few months earlier, the father of two, originally from Tunisia, had paid a deposit for weapons and admitted that he had arranged for their import with a like-minded extremist in Farouk, who was a covert operative.

He told Farouk that he could freely obtain a firearm through Sweden and indicated that he was looking to bring guns from Eastern Europe. Separately he had purchased an air weapon and visited a shooting range.

Saadaoui was arrested in a hotel car park in Bolton on 8 May 2024 when he went to collect some firearms from the back of a car, which had been disarmed.

Two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and approximately 200 rounds of ammunition were found in the vehicle, prosecutors said.

But counter-terrorism police said they control the supply and distribution of weapons to protect the public.

Hussein and Bilel Saadaoui, who were both elsewhere, were arrested minutes later.

The trial heard that Walid Saadaoui was planning to “martyr himself” in the attack.

He had drawn up a will and left a copy to his brother, along with his belongings and thousands of pounds of cash to help his family.

Walid Saadaoui came to the attention of authorities when he used 10 Facebook accounts, none of which were in his name, to spread Islamic extremist views.

Farooq was deployed to gain her trust online and later in person.

Walid Saadaoui used a fake account to join the Facebook group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, posting details of a “March Against Antisemitism” held in the city centre on 21 January last year, which was attended by thousands of people.

A few days later he told Farouk, “Here in Manchester, we have the largest Jewish community.

“God wishes that we would degrade and humiliate them (in the worst possible way) and hit them where it would hurt.”

He recruited fellow IS supporter Hussein, a Kuwaiti national who worked and lived in a furniture shop in Bolton, Greater Manchester, to assist him in his plans.

The pair travel to Dover, Kent, in March 2024 to investigate how to smuggle a weapon through the port without detection.

On his return, Walid Saadaoui travelled to Prestwich and Higher Broughton in North Manchester, where he carried out similar surveillance on Jewish nurseries, schools, synagogues and shops.

Bilel Saadaoui of Hindley, Wigan, was aware of his brother’s plans and sympathised with the Islamic State’s views, but he didn’t plan to join the attacks.

The trial showed WhatsApp messages between the pair that “provide a flavour of their views about the Jewish people”.

In one message, Bilel Saadaoui sent Hussein a link to a news report that a bridge collapse had killed several Jewish people and added the hashtag “Dear Palestine”.

Giving evidence, Walid Saadaoui denied that his ideology was extremist and claimed he was “playing” with Farouk.

He said that their intention was to foil the plans before they came to fruition, as their aim was to cut the weapons with an angle grinder and then alert the authorities.

Hussain told detectives that he was not part of any terrorist attack plans and said that the undercover operative’s evidence was “hypothetical.”

He also told them, “Your government, your prime minister, has sent weapons to Israel to kill our children.

“Terrorism is our religion. The Quran says terrorism is normal. We are proud; we say we are proud of terrorism.”

His barrister told jurors that Hussain had “very strong opinions” about the conflict in Gaza but that this did not make him a terrorist.

All three defendants will be sentenced on February 13.

Following the verdict, GMP Assistant Chief Constable Robert Potts said that Walid Saadau’s plan “could potentially be the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history”.

He clearly wanted a sophisticated attack with very lethal weapons to maximise Jewish deaths, as he saw this as his duty.

Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crimes and Counter-Terrorism Division, said, “This was an extremely disturbing plot motivated by extremist ideology.”

He said Farooq was “deployed as a highly trained witness who ensured that their plot did not succeed and secured valuable evidence straight from the mouths of the terrorists.”

Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Jewish security charity Community Security Trust, praised police for foiling the plans, saying the plot would make people “very, very frightened.”.

He said that the conspirators simply wanted to kill the Jews.

“They don’t care who they are Jews. They don’t stop to ask these Jews what their opinion is of Israel or whether they support Manchester United or anything.

They have a clear intention to murder Jews. It’s just like the Nazis.”