GMP/ ReutersTwo men who planned to target the Jewish community in Manchester in what police said could have been "the UK's most deadly terror attack" have been jailed for life.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, arranged for guns to be smuggled into the UK as part of an "Isis-inspired plot", Preston Crown Court heard.
They were caught by an undercover operative who played a "crucial role" in foiling their plans, Greater Manchester Police said.
Saadaoui and Hussein were given minimum prison terms of 37 and 26 years respectively.
Walid Saadaoui, of Abram, Wigan, aimed to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition into the UK.
Months earlier, the father-of-two, originally from Tunisia, paid a deposit for the weapons and believed he had arranged for their importation with a like-minded extremist named Farouk, who was actually an undercover operative.
Counter-terrorism police intervened on 8 May 2024, with more than 200 officers involved, as Walid Saadaoui was arrested at a hotel car park in Bolton when he went to collect some of the firearms, which had been deactivated.
He came to the attention of the authorities when he used 10 Facebook accounts, none of which were in his own name, to spread a torrent of Islamic extremist views.
Walid Saadaoui and Hussein, of no fixed abode, were found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism between 13 December 2023 and 9 May 2024.
A third man, Saadaoui's younger brother Bilel Saadaoui, 36, who was convicted of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism, was jailed for six years.
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