Life for al Qaeda ‘foot soldiers’ in plot to blow up transatlantic jets

Three "foot soldiers" in an al Qaeda gang which plotted to blow up hundreds of Heathrow passengers on seven transatlantic planes were jailed for a minimum of 20 years each today.

The British Muslims planned to be suicide bombers in an atrocity they hoped would be greater than 9/11.

The ringleaders have already been jailed and today Arafat Waheed Khan, 28, Ibrahim Savant, 29, and Waheed Zaman, 25, were all sentenced to life.

They were convicted of conspiracy to murder last week after a two-month trial at Woolwich crown court. Sentencing, Mr Justice Holdroyde said they had intended to kill "an uncertain but potentially large number of innocent men, women and children". Although they had only been "foot soldiers" in the plot, all three remain a danger to the public.

The judge said that if successful the plot would not only have caused massive loss of life and injury but would also have spread terror on both sides of the Atlantic.

The plot was smashed in August 2006 after the largest police surveillance operation in British history. The gang wanted to detonate bombs disguised as soft drinks.

Today's sentences bring to an end three separate trials of the bombers and their allies over the past three years. Each would-be bomber had prepared "martyrdom" videos.