Ten years for Isis sniper linked to Manchester bomber

An Isis gun fighter with close links to Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi was jailed for 10 years today (fri) after he sneaked into Syria and vowed to ‘kill or be killed’ fighting for the terrorist group.

Mohammed Abdallah, 26, picked up an AK47 and £2,000 on his way to the war-torn country with help from his disabled brother Abdalraouf, 24, who came to the UK for NHS treatment and then set up a ‘communications hub’ for Muslim extremists.

Mohammed was sought after because of his experience using heavy duty machine guns in Libya and was revealed to have joined Isis as a ‘specialist sniper’ when his details were leaked to Sky News by a defector last year.

The former supermarket worker claimed he had never been involved with Isis when he was arrested after returning to the UK in September last year.

A jury rejected his defence and found Abdallah guilty of one count of being a member of Isis, one count of possessing a firearm for terrorist purpose and one count of possessing £2,000 for terrorist purposes following an Old Bailey trial.

Today (FRI) Mrs Justice Maura McGowan jailed him for 10 years with an extended licence period of five years after said he ‘represents a continuing risk to the public’.

Abdallah failed all of his GCSEs and his defence team produced a report which said he has an IQ of 68 and difficulties with verbal expression and conversation.

But the judge said: ‘I have no doubt that you fully understood what you were doing and the consequences of your actions.

‘You travelled to Libya in 2011 and fought there, you were taught to use a semi-automatic weapon and on your own account used it in battle to ‘kill or be killed’.’

Abdallah also assisted in the firing of heavy weapons when he fought with Islamist groups battling Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.

The judge said he became ‘totally committed to joining a proscribed organisation and did join Isis’ after he ‘witnessed first hand the appalling loss of life and injury inflicted by the use of such weapons’.

‘Your experience of such weapons was of serious value to the group,’ she added.

‘Your commitment to violence is on this occasion is a clear sign you have not shown any sign of changing your views and attitudes.’

Abdallah was also made subject to notification requirements for 30 years.

He and his brother Abdalraouf were part of a network of Isis fanatics in south Manchester who were mostly jailed or killed before Abedi murdered 22 Ariana Grande fans and injured 120 others in a horrific suicide bomb attack on 22 May.

Abdalraouf was shot and left paralysed from the waist down while he and Mohammed fought with Islamist groups battling Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Tripoli, Libya, in August 2011.

When the Abdallahs fled to the UK later that year Abdalraouf was given a wheelchair and treated at central Manchester University Hospital at vast expense to the taxpayer.

The paraplegic jihadi then acted as an Isis recruiter, using Skype and encrypted messaging apps to help terrorists source guns and cash and get from the UK to Syria undetected.

Mohammed was given £2,000 and an assault rifle by his brother’s contacts before he crossed the Turkish border into Syria on an unknown date in 2014.

Abdallah, travelled with Nezar Khalifa, 27, and Raymond Matimba, 28, and planned to meet up with Stephen Gray, 34, an RAF veteran who converted to Islam.

Gray, Matimba and the Abdallahs are all said to have known Abedi and lived within three miles of his Fallowfield home in south Manchester.

Abdallah was identified as a terrorist after an Isis defector gave a USB stick containing his details to Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent for Sky News in March 2016.

Gray was refused entry to Turkey and returned home to Manchester on 26 July 2014.

One of the ISIS records, branded with the terror group’s black flag, had details about Abdallah’s ‘previous Jihadi experience’ and his ability to use heavy machine guns.

Abdalraouf Abdallah was arrested at his family home in Moss Side, Manchester, in November 2014, and was convicted of assisting others in committing acts of terrorism at Woolwich crown court in May last year.

He was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Gray was also arrested in Manchester in December 2014 and admitted preparing acts of terrorism, assisting others to commit acts of terrorism and entering into a terrorism-related funding arrangement.

He was jailed for five years at Woolwich Crown Court in July last year.

Matimba has never returned to the UK and was last known to be in Raqqa with Isis, jurors heard.

Mohammed Abdallah, of Westerling Way, Moss Side, Manchester, was arrested when he returned to the UK via Tunisia in September last year.

He denied but was convicted of one count of being a member of Isis, one count of possessing a firearm for terrorist purpose and one count of possessing £2,000 for terrorist purposes.