Islamic State sympathizer guilty of planning to attack U.S. servicemen in Britain

KINGSTON, England, April 1 (UPI) -- A British man was convicted Friday of planning an attack on U.S. servicemen at air bases in Britain.

Junead Khan, 25, a delivery driver, planned to join the Islamic State in Syria but chose instead to plot an attack on home soil, prosecutors at the Crown Court in Kingston-on-Thames, England, said. An al-Qaida guide to making pipe bombs was found on his laptop computer, and he scouted local air bases in search of a target while on his delivery route, prosecutors said.

Khan was found guilty of preparing terrorist acts. He was also convicted of preparing to join the Islamic State, as was his uncle, Shazib Khan, 23.

Investigators said Junead Khan exchanged messages with an IS member believed to be Junaid Hussein, a British national killed in Syria in August 2015 in a drone strike. Hussein sent Khan the bomb-making plans and told him to use bombs against police if they interrupted his plan to kill U.S. servicemen.

Evidence was introduced of an Internet exchange with Hussein in which Khan wrote, "When I saw these soldiers on road it looked simple but I had nothing on me or would've got into an accident with them and made them get out of the car." Khan's plan, the court was told, was to stage an accident in which U.S. personnel would leave their cars, after which Khan would attack them with a knife. A response from Hussein mentioned Lee Rigby, the British soldier stabbed to death in May 2013 on a London street after being run over by the car of his two attackers.

Khan was arrested in July at the pharmaceuticals company where he worked. He and his uncle will be sentenced in May.