Five-point ‘battle plan’ of IS fanatic at rail station
Obey Allah, wrote loner in knife attack on stranger
AN EXTREMIST obsessed with Islamic State wrote down a fivepoint ‘battle’ plan before setting out to behead a stranger.
Muhiddin Mire, 30, scrawled the chilling note as he immersed himself in the terror group’s propaganda.
He wrote ‘stand firm’, ‘remember Allah’, ‘obey Allah and his messengers’ ‘avoid dispute’ and ‘patients [sic]’, adding: ‘Keep those 5 things … will definitely win the war against the kuffars [unbelievers].’
The message was found by police after Mire tried to execute musician Lyle Zimmerman, 56, at a London Tube station.
Mire was yesterday convicted of attempted murder and attempted wounding of four others.
Mr Zimmerman, who is also a respected geneticist, suffered a deep wound and massive blood
‘War against unbelievers’
loss. But he survived because the knifeman did not sever any major blood vessels in his neck.
Days later, the American victim played down the dangers of terrorism and made light of his ordeal. He wrote online that he and Boris Johnson were on the ‘same team’ as he mocked Donald Trump for saying there are ‘no-go’ zones for London police.
And a gig flyer used on social media pretended that staff at the Royal London Hospital trauma unit – who saved his life – had called his band ‘cut-throat’.
His attacker, a former Uber cab driver, faces a long jail sentence after running amok at Leytonstone station, east London.
Somalia-born loner Mire, had been suffering mental health problems for more than a decade and had been referred to specialists by his GP a month before the attack.
Counter-terror police discovered he was obsessed with IS propaganda and had used his mobile phone to research killings by Jihadi John, images of beheadings in Syria and the murder of Lee Rigby.
He set out with a blunt, rusty knife on December 5. CCTV captured the moment in the ticket hall when he bore down on Mr Zimmerman, singled out because of his distinctive cowboy boots.
The musician, carrying a mandolin, a guitar and an amplifier, was on his way to a gig at the nearby ex-servicemen’s club.
Mire screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘this is for Syria, I’m going to spill your blood’. Mr Zimmerman tried to fight him off but was dragged to the ground and kicked in the head. Mire then began ‘sawing’ at the victim’s neck with the serrated blade.
Mr Zimmerman told the jury: ‘I don’t remember if I was cut or knifed … but I do remember being shocked or something violent happening. I remember I started to yell for help … I can recall being kicked around six times.’
Mire was captured on a mobile phone as he claimed he was doing it for ‘my Syrian brothers’, to which an onlooker shouted: ‘You ain’t no Muslim, bruv.’
He was arrested after being cornered by bystanders and Tasered by police.
The unconscious victim was saved by a junior doctor who stemmed the bleeding from the ‘deep and ragged wound’ exposing his windpipe.
Mr Zimmerman, who has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a researcher at the UK’s National Institute for Medical Research, added: ‘I was very lucky a doctor was passing… I am determined not to be dramatically changed by it.’
He had previously praised his adopted home’s response to the 7/7 bombings, writing: ‘I was very proud of the London “if I let this take the foam off my pint, the terrorists win” attitude.’
Mr Zimmerman’s bands play country, rock and bluegrass. He appears to have returned to the stage by the end of that month.
Mire, who is being held at Broadmoor Hospital, will be sentenced next month.