Terror suspects ‘planned driverless car bomb blast’
A PAIR of Islamic State-inspired asylum seekers planned to carry out bomb attacks using driverless cars packed with explosives, a court heard yesterday.
The men were arrested just six days before Christmas last year, with officers fearing they were set to carry out their atrocities in the “near future”.
Iraqi Kurd Andy Star, 32, who snuck into Britain illegally a decade ago, transformed a flat above a chip shop he ran into a bomb factory, the jury was told.
The flat became a base where Star and fellow countryman Farhad Salah, 23, set about preparing their attacks, it was said.
Sheffield Crown Court was told how Star applied for asylum in 2008 when the authorities became aware of his illegal presence in the country and that, in 2010, he was granted indefinite leave to remain.
He subsequently established a takeaway business, running The Mermaid fish bar in Chesterfield. He lived in an upstairs flat.
Salah arrived in the UK in 2014 and sought asylum, which had still not been determined when he was arrested at the Fatima Community Centre in Sheffield, where he was living, on the same day as Star last December.
During her opening speech, prosecutor Anne Whyte QC read out a message, sent by Salah shortly before his arrest, in which he told a contact: “My only attempt is to find a way to carry out martyrdom operation with cars without driver. Everything is perfect, only the programme is left.”
She added: “They are accused of researching the manufacture of explosive substances, obtaining the component parts, including chemicals, in order to construct improvised explosive devices and then manufacturing and testing explosive substances and improvised explosive devices with a view to committing attacks in the United Kingdom.”
After the pair were arrested in the early hours of December 19 last year, three air rifles, two Samurai swords, a wine bottle full of sulphuric acid, homemade fireworks and “a variety of improvised homemade fuses” were discovered at Star’s property, Ms Whyte said.
The court heard how officers investigating Salah’s home discovered gunpowder and a “viable pyrotechnic fuse”.
The pair both deny preparing an act of terrorism. The trial continues.