From IRA to jihadists, how detailed plans have proved a deadly weapon for terrorists

MUMBAI

DETAILED plans were drawn up by Pakistani militants in 2008 before an attack in the Indian city.

A month before, some had posed as students on a visit to Mumbai, filming targets and familiarising themselves with the surrounding roads.

On the day of the massacre, November 26, ten extremists killed almost 200 people.

The jihadists – from the littleknown Deccan Mujahideen, right – shot people at random and held sieges at two of the city’s most prestigious sites, including the Taj Mahal

Palace Hotel.

NAIROBI

SEVEN years ago the Somali al-Shabaab terror group was plotting a massacre over the border in Nairobi, Kenya, targeting the Westgate mall.

It has been said the extremists pored over plans of the complex, even tracking where ventilation ducts were.

Before the assault the terrorists reportedly hired a shop in the mall and stashed guns there.

On September 21, 2013, four extremists charged the centre, left, armed with AK-47s and bombs. They killed 67 people, including a number of Britons.

BRIGHTON

ON October 12, 1984, the IRA targeted Margaret Thatcher at the Tory Party conference in a Brighton hotel bombing.

Patrick Magee is said to have checked in to the Grand Hotel under a false name weeks before the attack.

There, he was able to map out the building and plant a bomb in a wall void.

The explosion tore through the hotel, killing Sir Anthony Berry MP, Roberta Wakeham, Eric Taylor, Lady Maclean and Lady Shattock. Norman Tebbit, left, was among more than 30 people injured.