London terrorist linked to plot to blow up army base

LONDON — The Islamist behind last week’s terror attack outside the British Parliament was investigated by intelligence agency MI5 as part of a plot to blow up an army base using a remote-controlled car.

Adrian Ajao, who killed four people in last Wednesday’s rampage, is understood to have been investigated six years ago over alleged connections to four Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists — Zahid Iqbal, Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, Syed Hussain and Umar Arshad.

The quartet were jailed for a total of 44 years in 2013, after admitting plotting to launch an audacious bomb attack on a territorial army base in their hometown of Luton.

Ajao — who changed his name to Khalid Masood after converting to Islam — had moved to the town in 2009 following two stints in Saudi Arabia, and lived just a few hundred yards from one of the ringleaders.

It is thought the fitness fanatic and bodybuilder may have also come into contact with members of the gang when they started preparing for jihad by attending a local gym.

Following last week’s attack, Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that Masood had been investigated by the security services for links to “violent extremism”.

However, after carrying out a risk assessment and looking into his background, it was decided he did not pose a terror threat.

Now, detectives are working around the clock to try to piece together Masood’s complex background, which saw him transform from a bright, intelligent, middle class schoolboy into a bloodthirsty Islamic terrorist.

While the main focus of the investigation has been to establish if he had any accomplices, police have also been looking into any links with extremists in the past.

It has now emerged that during his time living in Luton, Masood was a close neighbour of Taimour Abdulwahab, the Swedish student, who blew himself up in Stockholm after becoming radicalised when he attended university in the Bedfordshire town.

He also lived just yards from Abu Rahin Aziz, the jihadi who was killed in a drone strike in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria in 2015.

But it is thought it was his association with the gang behind the remote- controlled car plot that first put him on the radar of the security services.

In 2010, MI5 began monitoring four Luton-based extremists after learning that they might be preparing for some sort of attack.

As part of a sophisticated surveillance operation, agents bugged the men’s vehicles and eventually overheard Iqbal, a married father of two, discussing driving a toy car carrying explosives under the gates of the town’s territorial army base.

In one conversation he was heard saying to accomplice Ahmed: “At the bottom of the gate, there’s quite a big gap. If you had a little toy car, it drives underneath one of their vehicles or something.”

The group was also overheard discussing plans to attack MI5 headquarters, a United States Air Force base, an English Defence League gathering and a local shopping centre.

As part of their plans Ahmed, who lived less than a mile from Masood, began attending a local gym.

He later led a series of military-style training trips to Snowdonia in northwest Wales and the Brecon Beacons — a mountain range in South Wales — where they were monitored as they jogged in formation and used logs as mock weapons.

After months of surveillance, the men’s homes were raided and they were all arrested in September 2011, just days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

They were jailed in April 2013 after admitting having been inspired by Al Qaeda.

Judge Alan Fraser Wilkie said the men posed a significant risk to the public and jailed the ringleaders, Iqbal and Ahmed for 16 years and three months each.

Arshad received six years and nine months and Hussain was given five years and three months.

As the authorities probed deeper into the motivations behind Masood’s actions, more information began to emerge over the weekend about his recent movements.

As well as having two daughters from an earlier relationship with businesswoman Jane Harvey, with whom he lived in the village of Northiam near Rye in East Sussex, Masood also has a son and a daughter with his most recent partner Rohey Hydara.

It is understood they had been living together in Birmingham up until Christmas when Ms Hydara moved back to east London in to look after her disabled mother.

During his time in Birmingham, the former English tutor had been receiving benefits and neighbours said he did not work.

Police confirmed late on Sunday night (UK time) they had made a further arrest in connection with the Westminster attack after raiding a property close to Masood’s Birmingham home.

A 30-year-old man was being held on suspicion of preparation for terrorist acts.

A 58-year-old man who was arrested in Birmingham on Thursday remained in custody, while a 32-year-old woman has been granted bail.

Nine other people who had been detained as part of the investigation have now been released with no further action. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH