Guilty verdicts in ISIS plot police say could have been ‘the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history’

A foiled ISIS-inspired terror plot targeting Manchester’s Jewish community has renewed fears over Jewish safety in Britain, after three men were convicted on Tuesday of planning a mass-casualty gun attack. English authorities said the Manchester case exposed a highly advanced ISIS-inspired terror plot that could have become the deadliest terrorist attack in U.K. history

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were convicted at Preston Crown Court of planning a firearms attack against Jewish targets in Manchester. A third man, Saadaoui’s brother Bilel Saadaoui, 36, was convicted of failing to disclose information about the plot, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Prosecutors said the men planned a marauding gun attack using military-style weapons. Saadaoui paid an initial deposit toward the purchase of four AK-47 assault rifles, two pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, with funds raised after selling his home and business. The plot was uncovered through an undercover police operation, and Saadaoui was arrested while attempting to take possession of weapons and ammunition, the CPS said.

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Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the plan could have become “the deadliest terrorist attack in U.K. history,” warning that an assault on crowded Jewish sites would have had “catastrophic” consequences, according to Sky News.

According to the prosecution, Saadaoui admired Hamid al-Abaoud, the ISIS operative who led the deadly 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, and sought to replicate a similar style of mass murder. The court heard that Saadaoui told an undercover officer he wanted to kill “young, old, women, elderly, the whole lot,” and described Christian victims as “a bonus,” Sky News reported.

Prosecutors said the men planned to move between locations and intended to kill police officers who might respond to the attack. Saadaoui and Hussein also traveled to the White Cliffs of Dover in March and May 2024 to observe port security, believing they were surveilling how weapons would be brought into the U.K., according to the CPS.

The plot was disrupted on May 8, 2024, when Saadaoui was arrested while attempting to take delivery of firearms and ammunition during the undercover operation. Sky News reported that police body-worn camera footage showed armed officers arresting him moments after the handover.

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Sky News also reported that intelligence sources said MI5 believed Saadaoui had previously been in contact with a British extremist who left the U.K. to join ISIS in 2013.

Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu KC told the jury the plan “hardly had the innocence of a teddy bear picnic,” describing it as a deliberate attempt to inflict mass civilian casualties, Sky News reported.

The foiled plot revived painful memories in a city that has already suffered major terrorist attacks.

Manchester was the site of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, when an ISIS-inspired suicide bomber killed 22 people at a concert, the deadliest terror attack in the U.K. since the July 7, 2007, one in London.

More recently, counterterrorism police responded to an attack outside a synagogue in Manchester in October when an assailant rammed pedestrians and stabbed worshipers during Yom Kippur services, killing two Jewish men. British authorities declared the incident a terrorist attack, according to Reuters.

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The CPS said the foiled ISIS-inspired gun plot targeted an area of north Manchester predominantly occupied by the Jewish community, heightening concerns among security officials about repeated targeting of the same population.

The convictions come as new polling shows a sharp deterioration in British Jews’ sense of security.

A survey published by the Campaign Against Antisemitism in December 2025 found that 51% of British Jews do not believe they have a long-term future in the United Kingdom. According to the poll, 61% said they had considered leaving the country within the past two years, citing antisemitism and safety concerns.

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The survey also found that 96% of respondents said Jews are less safe in the U.K. than before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, while 59% said they avoid wearing visible signs of Jewish identity in public due to fear of antisemitism.

Confidence in the police and justice system was also low. Only 14% of respondents 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 contributed to this report.