A pair of sisters and their mother are accused of plotting the UK’s first all-female Islamic State-inspired terror attack on London, spurred on by a fighter in Syria.
The Old Bailey heard how Safaa Boular, 18, planned a knife attack at the British Museum after she was prevented from joining her jihadi fiancé Naweed Hussain in the terror caliphate, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Boular urged her sister Rizlaine Boular, 21, to carry out a strike on the Houses of Parliament, and their mother, Mina Dich, 44, provided “positive assistance and support” to the plot, the court heard.
Safaa wanted to “martyr” herself with a suicide bomb and also considered using guns, grenades, and even a car to cause maximum destruction, but eventually followed her partner’s advice settled on a blade.
The mother reportedly had images of beheadings, women holding machine guns, and one pictured captioned: “Sisterhood in jihad, where we fight together get martyred together and fly together inshallah.”
After police uncovered Safaa’s intention to travel to Syria in August 2016, she is said to have turned her attention to Britain, staying in contact with her terrorist partner on encrypted messaging applications.
However, British Security Services thwarted her efforts by deploying specially trained “role play” officers to trick the sisters into talking online.
Former MI5 Boss: UK Facing Thirty Years of Islamist Terror Threat
https://t.co/DRg1M0BogH— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 11, 2017
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: “It was clear that Hussain had been planning an act of terrorism with Safaa Boular in which she could engage if she remained in this country.
“Both Hussain and Safaa Boular talked of a planned ambush involving grenades and or firearms.”
She also told an officer posing as an Islamic State fighter that all she needed was a “car and a knife to get what I want to achieve”, the court heard.
Atkinson added: “Based in her preparation and discussion, it appears she planned to launch an attack against members of the public selected largely at random in the environs of that cultural jewel and most popular of tourist attractions, the British Museum in central London.”
Boular and her mother have admitted to preparing acts of terrorism, but Safaa has denied two charges. The court also heard:
“Based on her preparation, reconnaissance, and discussion, it appears that (Rizlaine) planned to launch an attack, using knives against members of the public, in the environs of the Palace of Westminster in central London.
“Like her sister’s thwarted plan, this was an attack that was intended to involve the infliction of serious injury and death.”
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