American terror suspect to testify in Great Britain bomb plot trial

An FBI informant who has pleaded guilty in the United States to links with al-Qaida testifies against alleged terrorists in a British court Thursday.

Photo: American terror suspect to testify in Great Britain bomb plot trial

Mohammed Junaid Babar, 30, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, will be protected by teams of police motorcyclists and by armed officers, as he is transported from a high-security police station in north London to the Central Criminal Court in the capital.

He pleaded guilty to various terrorist offenses at a federal court in New York in 2004 and described traveling to the Pakistani province of Waziristan to supply cash and military equipment to al-Qaida suspects.

Two of the charges related to what U.S. prosecutors described as the "British bombing plot," prosecutor David Waters has told a jury at London 's Central Criminal Court. At alleged terror training camps in Pakistan , Babar helped plot an attack on Britain with a group of seven British men, supplying them with details to make an ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb, Waters said.

Following his arrest, Babar provided other information to the FBI about different planned terrorist attacks on Britain .

A reporting restriction imposed by the London court, in order to prevent prejudice against the seven suspects, prevents any publication of details about the information he supplied.

The seven Omar Khyam, 24; Anthony Garcia, 24; Nabel Hussain, 20; Jawad Akbar, 22; Waheed Mahmood, 33; Shujah ud Din Mahmood, 19; and Salahuddin Amin, 31, all deny a charge of conspiring to cause explosions and face life imprisonment if convicted.

Waters has told the Central Criminal Court jury that the men drew up a long list of potential bombing targets, including Britain's electricity network, one of London's biggest nightclubs and one of the country's largest shopping malls.

Waters told the court Amin also was involved in attempts to buy a radioactive dirty bomb.

Khyam, Garcia and Hussain deny a second charge of possession of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for possible use in terrorism. Khyam and Shujah ud Din Mahmood, who are brothers, also deny a charge of possession of aluminum powder for possible use in terrorism, reports the AP.

D.M.