British bomb plot suspects "planned jihad"

LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) Seven Britons accused of plotting to bomb clubs, trains and synagogues in England planned to take their fight to Pakistan and Afghanistan if they had succeeded, prosecutors told a court today.

''The overall desire was to further the (cause) of jihad (Holy War) wherever and however it could be achieved,'' prosecution lawyer David Waters said in what police have described as Britain's biggest terrorism trial since September. 11 attacks on the United States.

British forces are fighting the militant Islamist Taleban in Afghanistan.

The seven are accused of conspiring to bomb high profile targets, possibly including London's Ministry of Sound nightclub and the huge Bluewater shopping centre in Kent using bombs made from fertiliser.

The defendants -- Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Omar Khyam, his brother Shujah Mahmood, Waheed Mahmood, Nabeel Hussain, and Salahuddin Amin -- deny conspiring to cause an explosion ''likely to endanger life''.

Garcia, Khyam and Hussain deny possessing an article for terrorism -- the fertiliser. Khyam and Mahmood deny having aluminium powder, an ingredient in explosives.

Britain suffered its worst peacetime attack on July 7, 2005, when four British Islamists blew themselves up on three London underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people and wounding more than 700. Authorities say another such attack is wholly possible.

The prosecution said the trial was not a witch-hunt against the defendants' religious beliefs.

''Of course it would be ludicrous to approach the allegations in a vacuum and pretend the backdrop or religious or political motivations does not exist,'' Waters said.

''But having acknowledged that it is only a backdrop, what we are concerned about are allegations of crime.'' REUTERS SY RK2220