Convicted Bomb Plot Terrorists Planned to Bring Down Seven Transatlantic Planes

Three young British Muslims who were turned into bombers while doing charity work in Pakistan are facing life behind bars after being convicted of plotting mass murder.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were accused of conspiring to bring down at least seven transatlantic airliners in mid-air, using bombs hidden in soft drinks bottles.

The plot brought chaos to Heathrow and led to new global security procedures preventing passengers taking liquids through security in airports.

Yesterday, after 56 hours of deliberations and a four-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court, a jury found the three men guilty of conspiracy to murder after they admitted targeting Heathrow's Terminal 3.

But in a blow to Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service, none of the alleged conspirators were convicted of a separate murder charge directly linking the liquid bombs to an attempt to blow up aircraft.

The jurors also failed to reach verdicts on four other alleged members of the terrorist cell – all young British Muslims from London and Buckinghamshire. An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, who was claimed by prosecutors to have flown into Britain to supervise the final stages of the plot on the orders of al-Qa'ida, was cleared of all charges.

The Independent has learnt that Ali, 27, and Sarwar, the "quartermaster" of the cell, were radicalised while working as volunteers for a British Islamic charity in a Pakistani refugee camp housing thousands of refugees displaced by the American-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The two men travelled to the Chaman refugee camp close to Pakistan's border in 2002, claiming they were volunteers for the Midlands-based Islamic Medical Association (IMA) and were deeply affected by their work tending the injuries of children fatally wounded by American cluster bombs during fighting with the Taliban, according to counter-terrorism sources.

The CPS last night defended itself against claims that the jury had rejected the airline bomb plot and said it was considering a retrial of the seven men, excluding Gulzar, on the charge.

A spokesman said: "The jury failed to reach a verdict on whether the ambit of the conspiracy to murder included the allegation that they intended to detonate improvised explosive devices on transatlantic airliners. It is therefore incorrect to say that the jury rejected the airline bomb plot."

Operation Overt, which began early in 2006, was one of the largest conducted by Scotland Yard and the biggest peacetime surveillance operation, involving officers from MI5, the Metropolitan Police and other forces around the country.

The trial heard that the conspirators used equipment bought from grocery shops, hardware stores and a hairdressing wholesaler to construct weapons which would cause "death on an almost unprecedented scale".

Ali, from Walthamstow, north-east London, received training in how to conduct the plot during repeated visits to Pakistan and its lawless border area with Afghanistan between 2000 and 2005 before creating the bombs with Sarwar's assistance.

It can now be revealed that Ali was also in contact with the mastermind of the failed 21 July bombings. Muktar Said Ibrahim called Ali in 2004 and officials believe the two men may have met while in Pakistan between December 2004 and May 2005. The visits also coincided with the presence in Pakistan of two of the 7 July conspirators, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer. All three groups went on to plan terrorist assaults using bombs based on hydrogen peroxide.

Sarwar, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Hussain, 27, who attended college with Ali in north London, were key figures, used for buying the equipment needed to made the liquid explosive – fashioned from a powdered soft drink mixture and hydrogen peroxide hair bleach – and a second more powerful explosive to be used as a detonator. The bombs were to be disguised in 500ml Lucozade and Oasis bottles.