'Bomber left will to bin Laden'

Updated 21.30 Fri Oct 10 2008
Keywords: Mohammed Asha, Kafeel Ahmed, Bilal Abdulla

A terrorist who launched a bomb attack on Glasgow Airport left a will addressed to Osama bin Laden, a court heard.

NHS doctor Bilal Abdulla, 29, wrote that he was planning to kill in revenge for injustices against Muslims by British and American soldiers, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

Abdulla, who is on trial with a third man, Mohammed Asha, 28, was arrested at the airport after attempting to fight off police officers and members of the public

A draft of the will was found on a badly-burned laptop in the remains of a Jeep Cherokee he drove into the airport's main terminal building in June last year.

The computer also contained videos of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq, coffins of American soldiers and clips of speeches by Osama bin Laden.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said Abdulla wrote the document because he expected to die in the attack alongside a second man, Kafeel Ahmed, 28.

Ahmed, who drove the vehicle and helped fill it with gas canisters and petrol, died from burns.

Abdulla, who is on trial with a third man, Mohammed Asha, 28, was arrested at the airport after attempting to fight off police officers and members of the public.

The court was shown CCTV footage of the moment the car bomb was driven into the airport terminal.

The film showed the four-wheel-drive becoming engulfed with flames and an Asian man in a white t-shirt grappling with police before running away.

Mr Laidlaw said Ahmed and Abdulla threw lit petrol bombs as they shouted "Allahu Akbar", meaning God is great.

CS gas was used to restrain Ahmed and a member of the public suffered a broken leg when he was kicked by Abdulla.

Inside the building people were trampled in the panic and there was a crush of baggage trolleys at exits.

Abdulla and Ahmed launched the suicide attack after attempts to detonate car bombs in London's West End in the early hours of the previous day failed, the court was told.

The jury was later shown video footage of Abdulla's semi-detached home in Houston, on the outskirts of Glasgow, which police said had been turned into a bomb factory, strewn with gas canisters, batteries and circuitry.

Abdulla, of Houston, near Glasgow, and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, worked as doctors at NHS hospitals in Scotland and Staffordshire. They deny conspiring to murder and cause explosions.

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