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The Manchester synagogue terrorist previously plotted an attack on a defence academy where he believed Israeli soldiers were being stationed, a court heard.
Jihad al-Shamie, 35, held discussions in a mosque with Mohammed Bashir, 31, which were recorded on CCTV, Manchester Crown Court was told.
Bashir is facing jail for driving the terrorist on a reconnaissance mission to the UK Defence Academy in Oxfordshire, two months before al-Shamie attacked worshippers at Heaton Park synagogue last October.
The pair had also discussed getting “war ready” and how al-Shamie had “had enough of this world” in messages on phones held by the police but only examined after the attack.
The court heard the pair developed the plan to target Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers who they believed were being trained there.
Jonathan Polnay KC, prosecuting, said the attack they planned involved “weapons that would cause multiple fatalities and have national and international impact”.
The academy provides defence and security education to the Armed Forces, the Government and industry.
It routinely has up to 4,000 staff, contractors, students and visitors on site at any given time, the court was told.
Al-Shamie, from Prestwich, Manchester, drove his black Kia Picanto into a security guard outside the synagogue on Oct 2 last year before stabbing to death Melvin Cravitz, 66.
He was wearing a fake suicide vest and was shot dead by armed police as worshippers barricaded themselves inside the synagogue.
A stray bullet killed Adrian Daulby, 53, who was among those preventing the attacker from getting inside.
Bashir drove Shamie’s car on a ten-hour round trip from Manchester on Aug 14, despite being uninsured, and the pair spent 13 minutes in the area of the Defence Academy in Oxfordshire before returning.
Both Bashir and al-Shamie deliberately disposed of their mobile phones after carrying out the hostile reconnaissance, Mr Polnay told the court.
However, al-Shamie had been arrested on Feb 13, eight months before the attack, on an allegation of breaching a non-molestation order.
He was arrested again on Sept 21, on an allegation of rape and on both occasions police seized his mobile phones.
They were examined by Counter-Terrorism Police after the Heaton Park attack and the police also obtained a warrant for al-Shamie’s online iCloud storage.
The information revealed WhatsApp and voice note exchanges between Bashir and al-Shamie, and a WhatsApp chat group of which they were both members.
Bashir sent more than 2,000 messages to the group and Mr Polnay said he was a “long-standing, committed jihadist” and his messages with al-Shamie “demonstrated they were both close associates and both shared in an extremist worldview”.
CCTV footage from the al-Sunnah Mosque in Manchester, combined with telephone data from al-Shamie’s handset, demonstrated that both men were planning a terrorist attack on the Defence Academy at Shrivenham, Mr Polnay said.
On the afternoon of Aug 9, both men arrived at the mosque in al-Shamie’s Kia Picanto and sat in the car for 40 minutes while al-Shamie carried out an internet search for “IDF soldiers UK”.
The search generated an article about Israeli army officers who had been studying at the Royal College of Defence Studies in central London throughout the “Gaza genocide” from the website Declassified UK.
Al-Shamie declared: “Allahuakhbar, allahuakbar [God is great]” and added: “There is no doubt that there will be Israeli IDF guys there.”
Bashir added: “You got to look into it bro, look into it, this is the place, this is the place.”
“They selected a specific location believing, erroneously as it transpired, that their activities would not be captured on CCTV cameras,” Mr Polnay said.
Bashir, a dual British and Pakistani citizen, left the country to travel to Pakistan with his family two days after the attack and returned on Nov 27, when he was arrested at Manchester Airport.
He pleaded guilty in June to preparing a terrorist attack and disseminating terrorist material encouraging martyrdom in the WhatsApp social media app.
At the end of the conversation on Aug 9, as al-Shamie and Bashir were leaving the mosque at 7.43pm, the CCTV picked up a smiling Bashir saying that he planned to die as a martyr, the court heard.
He told al-Shamie: “Wow akhi wow. This is like, this time next year, we will be in green birds.”
Al-Shamie replied: “It’s exciting akhi. inshallah [God willing] may Allah accept you akhi.
“I have always known before I practised [religion] that I would die fighting akhi, but now I understand.”
Green birds were said to be a reference to them entering paradise as martyrs.
The court also heard al-Shamie carried out internet searches for information about terrorist attacks in Britain, including the July 7 bombings and the London Bridge attack, as well as the failed attack at Fishmongers’ Hall.
They included looking up 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay and Khuram Butt, leader of the London Bridge attack, along with Youssef Zaghba, another participant in the London Bridge attack.
Bashir was arrested on his return to Manchester on Nov 27.
The hearing continues.
