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A 20-year-old man who wanted to join ISIS in Syria and practiced by going to the gym and paintballing has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Ahmedeltigani Alsyed was sentenced today after admitting preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications.

His younger brother, Yousif Alsyed, 18, will be sentenced at a later date.

The siblings, from Hounslow, west London, engaged in secret communications as they plotted to travel to Syria to fight alongside extremists.

To prepare themselves for waging jihad they joined a gym and went paintballing at 'Blind Fire' in Surrey on September 3, 2016.

(Image: Central news)

A short video of their day out was played to a court, showing the older brother playing up to the camera.

Dressed entirely in camouflage, he raises one finger - mimicking a pose struck by Islamic State fighters - and says: "This is a message to everyone; if we do not come back safe and sound, look after our families, that's all."

Challenged about the video during a Newton Hearing on the paintballing incident, the defendant said: "I was joking.

"Obviously there were men holding big guns and the night before we watched videos of people screaming and crying (during paintballing) and I was terrified."

He added: "I was terrified - I was hiding the whole match as well, I didn't want to be hit."

Prosecutor Eleanor Darlow QC asked: "We know you were watching very, very, very violent imagery - men being murdered, men having their heads cut off, men being blow in two by bombs - when you tell his honour you were frightened by big guns in paintballing, are you being truthful?"

He insisted he was and that he had also found the videos of beheadings and bombings frightening, too.

Asked why he watched them, the defendant said: "I don't know, to be honest."

John Cooper, defending, said during mitigation that Ahmedeltigan had "low intelligence" with an IQ of 70, was "susceptible and impressionable" and, according to a psychiatric assessment, was "thrill-seeking" when he toyed with travelling to Syria.

"He expresses remorse for his offending behaviour and doesn't consider himself a terrorist," he added.

(Image: Central news)

Their plan was foiled when the younger brother was referred to police by his school in 2016 and further action was taken by Prevent.

They had been part of a secret Telegram chat group called Peace with two teenagers, Mohammed Ali, 18, and another 17-year-old who were both jailed in January for attempting to join Islamic State in Syria.

A search warrant was executed on the Alsyed brothers' address and their phones were seized, with the pair both arrested in a further raid six days later.

A trove of incriminating evidence was found on the devices, including contact on Yousif's phone with a facilitator for Islamic State in Yemen.

One message sent by Ahmedeltigani said: "I want to be istshadi (a martyr) I want every bit in my body to be destroyed."

Commander Clarke Jarrett, of the Met Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "The evidence we recovered showed the clear intent of the Alsyed brothers to go to Syria, where they would join Daesh .

"It is patent to me that their intention, once they had joined the terrorist group, was to fight alongside it as the brothers had invested time in training in the UK, including spending time at a paintballing camp and joining a gym.

"The brothers shared with each other gory videos and images glorifying Daesh. They had their hearts set on joining their fight but our investigation stopped them."