Manchester synagogue attacker plotted to kill Israelis at UK military school
The man who carried out a deadly ramming and stabbing at a Manchester synagogue last year also planned to attack a UK military academy, believing Israeli soldiers were studying there, British outlets have reported, citing prosecutors.
It is unclear whether any Israeli officers were studying at the school at the time of the plot.
On October 2, British-Syrian citizen Jihad al-Shamie rammed his car into the gates of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation as congregants gathered for Yom Kippur morning prayer services. He stabbed Melvin Cravitz, 66, to death after disembarking, then tried to storm the synagogue before police shot him dead. Adrian Daulby, 53, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest fired by a police officer responding to the situation.
Shamie’s friend, 31-year-old delivery driver Mohammad Bashir, pleaded guilty Wednesday at the Manchester Crown Court to conducting “hostile reconnaissance” along with him against the UK Defence Academy two months before the fatal rampage.
Bashir appeared for sentencing over the unrealized plot Wednesday, the BBC reported, after being arrested in November due to his links to Shamie, whom he met at their local mosque.
Bashir, for his part, was not accused of involvement in the synagogue attack, but helped plan a similar attack at the defense academy headquartered in Oxfordshire, the prosecution said.
“The attack that was being planned [on the UK Defence Academy] was of the sort that Jihad Al-Shamie in fact carried out on October 2 at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester,” said Jonathan Polnay for the prosecution, according to the BBC.
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