{"id":1066854,"date":"2026-07-03T23:18:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1066854\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:18:30","slug":"manchester-news-islamist-teenager-behind-sick-terror-plot-arrested-at-manchester-airport-while-trying-to-fly-to-somalia-and-join-isis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1066854\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester news: Islamist teenager behind sick terror plot arrested at Manchester Airport while trying to fly to Somalia and join Isis"},"content":{"rendered":"

A teenager who has been jailed for planning a series of terrorist attacks across the UK was arrested while trying to fly to Somalia to join Isis.<\/p>\n

Police arrested Italian national Muhammad Billal at Manchester Airport in November 2024.<\/p>\n

The Old Bailey heard how the teenager’s phone contained terrorist literature and an internet search history of researching how to acquire guns such as rifles and semi-automatic weaponry.<\/p>\n

He was charged in February 2025 with two counts of preparation of terrorist act and four counts of collecting information likely to be used by a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n

Billal, now 19, has now been given a 13-and-a-half year sentence after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.<\/p>\n

The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, told the terrorist: “By your own account to the probation officer, you intended to kill members of the public and you hoped to be killed by police.<\/p>\n

“You could not be sure that you would not have gone through with the attack,” she added.<\/p>\n

The teenager declared his allegiance to Islamic State throughout 2024 until his arrest.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Muhammad Bilal pleaded guilty to six offences<\/p>\n

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COUNTER TERRORISM POLICE NORTH WEST<\/p>\n

He also collected a “wealth” of propaganda distributed by the Islamist organisation.<\/p>\n

Billal told police he was just “naive and bored”, claiming he was “not a violent person” and had just been travelling to Somalia “for the sunshine”.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting, Simon Gurney KC said the police managed to stop him undertaking three months of training with Isis.<\/p>\n

The court heard how the teenager defended the group on messaging app Discord.<\/p>\n

LATEST CRIME HEADLINES FROM GB NEWS:<\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/p>\n

Muhammad Billal was arrested at Manchester Airport where he planned to train in Somalia <\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

He said: “I’m protecting Muslims and fighting their enemies.<\/p>\n

“For you they’re terrorists but for me they’re fighters for justice and truth.”<\/p>\n

He researched potential targets including churches, synagogues and Old Trafford, and prepared by researching “nearby shooting ranges”.<\/p>\n

Billal planned to purchase his gun on the “dark web” using cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

\"Manchester<\/p>\n

Manchester United’s stadium was one of the locations Muhammad Billal could have targeted<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

Defending, Andrew Morris said Billal, who was 17 at the time of his crimes, was “vulnerable” and had been “brainwashed” after moving to Britain from Italy as a 13-year-old.<\/p>\n

The teenager admitted to all six of his offences in July last year.<\/p>\n

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Billal had been motivated by “Islamic State ideology” and “martyrdom”.<\/p>\n

She added: “I don’t accept you were groomed; you started off on this track entirely yourself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A teenager who has been jailed for planning a series of terrorist attacks across the UK was arrested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1066855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[113921,748,393,4884,34588,2465,12,17444,13466,16,15,263],"class_list":["post-1066854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-across-the-uk","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-isis","tag-manchester","tag-news","tag-north-west-of-england","tag-terrorism","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116858605405631917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1066855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}