Two men were convicted of planning a marauding firearms attack on Manchester’s Jewish community after an undercover operation disrupted a weapons handover on 8 May 2024. A third man was convicted for failing to disclose information about the plot. Prosecutors say the defendants purchased military-style weapons, conducted reconnaissance and intended to move between locations and target responding officers. The case has heightened fears among British Jews, with a December 2025 poll showing deep concerns about safety and low confidence in police and the justice system.
Three Convicted Over Foiled ISIS-Inspired Plot That Could Have Been UK’s Deadliest Attack
Surveillance image showing Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, pictured near Dover, as they have been found guilty at Preston Crown Court of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community, in Britain, in this handout surveillance image dated May 8, 2025.
Three men have been convicted in connection with a foiled ISIS-inspired plan to carry out a mass-casualty firearms attack on Manchester’s Jewish community, a case British authorities say exposed a highly developed plot that might have become the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.K.
At Preston Crown Court, jurors found 38-year-old Walid Saadaoui and 52-year-old Amar Hussein guilty of planning a firearms assault on Jewish targets in Manchester. Saadaoui’s brother, 36-year-old Bilel Saadaoui, was convicted of failing to disclose information about the scheme, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Prosecutors said the primary suspects intended a marauding gun attack using military-style weapons. Saadaoui paid a deposit toward the purchase of four AK-47 assault rifles, two pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, funding the plan in part by selling his home and business, the CPS said.
The conspiracy was uncovered through an undercover police operation. Authorities arrested Saadaoui on 8 May 2024 while he was attempting to take delivery of weapons and ammunition during a staged handover; police body-worn camera footage shown to media captured armed officers detaining him shortly after the exchange.
Money seized from the home of Bilel Saadaoui, 36, who has been found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism as two men, Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, have been found guilty on Tuesday of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community, in Britain, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on Dec. 23, 2025.
Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts warned the plot could have resulted in catastrophic loss of life, saying it had the potential to become “the deadliest terrorist attack in U.K. history” if carried out against crowded Jewish sites, according to media reports.
During the trial, prosecutors said Saadaoui admired Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ISIS operative linked to the 2015 Paris attacks, and sought to emulate that style of mass murder. An undercover officer was told by Saadaoui that he wanted to kill “young, old, women, elderly, the whole lot,” and that killing Christians would be “a bonus,” Sky News reported from the courtroom.
Prosecutors also told jurors the suspects planned to move between multiple locations during the assault and intended to kill police officers who might respond. Saadaoui and Hussein conducted reconnaissance visits to the White Cliffs of Dover in March and May 2024 to observe port security, believing they were monitoring possible routes for weapons to be brought into the U.K., the CPS said.
Investigators said intelligence from MI5 indicated Saadaoui had previously been in contact with a British extremist who left the U.K. to join ISIS in 2013.
Weapons seized from the home of Walid Saadaoui, 38, who has been found guilty at Preston Crown Court of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community, in Britain, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on December 23, 2025. Greater Manchester.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC described the plot as far from innocent, telling the jury it "hardly had the innocence of a teddy bear picnic," but was instead a deliberate attempt to inflict mass civilian casualties.
The foiled plan has reopened painful memories in Manchester, which was the scene of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing when an ISIS-inspired suicide attacker killed 22 people at a concert. More recently, police responded to an attack outside a Manchester synagogue in October when an assailant rammed pedestrians and stabbed worshippers during Yom Kippur services, killing two Jewish men; British authorities treated that incident as a terrorist attack.
The CPS said the planned gun attack targeted an area of north Manchester with a large Jewish population, heightening concerns among security officials about repeated targeting of the same community. The convictions arrive amid polling that shows a sharp decline in British Jews’ sense of safety.
A Campaign Against Antisemitism survey published in December 2025 reported that 51% of British Jews do not believe they have a long-term future in the United Kingdom, and 61% said they had considered leaving the country within the past two years because of antisemitism and safety concerns. The poll also found that 96% felt Jews are less safe in the U.K. than before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel; 59% said they avoid wearing visible signs of Jewish identity in public for fear of antisemitism.
Confidence in law enforcement and the justice system was low in the survey: just 14% said police do enough to protect Jewish communities, 8% said the justice system adequately punishes antisemitic crimes, and 7% said prosecutors do enough to bring offenders to justice, the Campaign Against Antisemitism reported. Reuters and other outlets contributed to reporting on the case.
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