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A British medical student is facing jail for masterminding the first UK terror plot to murder soldiers, police and civilians receiving direct instructions from Islamic State in Syria.

Evil Tarik Hassane, 22, nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ plotted to kill people in drive-by shootings while riding a moped around army barracks and a police station.

He worked alongside another home grown terrorist, physics student Suhaib Majeed, 21, who was found guilty of his involvement.

Hassane idolised Osama bin Laden and was on the verge of a bloody attack which drew parallels to the Paris massacre that left 130 dead.

The pair obtained a pistol and silencer and were looking to buy a moped to carry out a massacre when armed police swooped.

(Image: PA)

Hassane reportedly knew IS executioner Jihadi John after growing up in the same part of west London as him.

He is believed to have spent time in Syria and may have even met up with the notorious murderer, born Mohammed Emwazi, while there.

Jurors were not told that Hassane and Majeed had links to the same mosque association with Emwazi, the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Ladbroke Grove, West London.

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Hassane used “spy proof” software to get instructions from the ISIS executioner’s Syrian network while the pair planned the drive by shootings in London using maps from Google Streetview and communicated using code words.

Hassane online reconnaissance targets included Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks in White City, and the police station in Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, both West London.

They also shared extremist material online, with Majeed possessing a Jihadi John beheading video, and spread their warped Islamic ideology in a group called “Turnup Terror Squad” on the encrypted messaging app, Telegram.

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The group were inspired after receiving a 42-minute hate speech issued in September 2014 by ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, ordering followers to kill disbelievers in the West.

Read more:ISIS-inspired home-grown terrorists

The fatwa is also thought to have influenced the Paris attackers.

But Majeed had been under surveillance by the security services and moved in after he obtained a weapon.

Scotland Yard said the major plot drew parallels with last year’s Paris massacre and represented an “escalation” in the ambitions of Islamic State in the UK.

(Image: PA)

Head of counter terrorism, Commander Dean Haydon, said: “It does draw parallels in a way to Paris. Certainly the attackers in this case were intent on murder.

“They were intent on using a firearm. They were intent on causing fear, distress, disorder in a particular part of west London.

"And they weren’t prepared to hang around, they were prepared to leave the scene.

"Leaving the public, police and everyone concerned wondering who’s committed the attack.”

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He called the nature of the plan “a real concern” as it involved an Islamic State-inspired drive-by shooting that was not a martyrdom operation.

“I would say this plan became more complex than other attacks over recent years.

“This is an elevation of complexity - acquiring a moped, committing a drive-by shooting, acquiring a firearm, silencer and ammunition, in broad daylight targeting police, military and members of the public before making their getaway,” he said.

Hassane, a British citizen, was in his second year at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology, in Khartoum, Sudan, but would travel back to the UK from time to time.

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At the time of his arrest in October 2014 he was living with his family in north Kensington, central London.

Hassane went to Westminster City School with his ‘lieutenant’ Suhaib Majeed and would issue instructions for him to carry out tasks to further the terror plot.

Hassane dramatically changed his plea guilty half-way through the trial admitted conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts between 8 July 2014 and 7 October 2014.

His co-conspirator Majeed, of St John’s Wood, west London, was yesterday convicted of the same charges, spanning between 8 July 2014 and 7 October 2014, by a jury at the Old Bailey following five days of deliberations.

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Two other defendants former Catholic altar boy Nyall Hamlett, 25 and Nathan Cuffy, 26, were acquitted of being part of the terror plot by helping to provide the gun but both face jail for firearms offences.

Cuffy, who stashed four guns in his bedroom, earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing prohibited weapons and one count of possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life.

Hamlett pleaded guilty to transferring a self-loading pistol, ammunition and a silencer to Majeed.

Commander Haydon, warned the spy-proof technology, which destroys messages after they have been read, poses a “real challenge” in the battle against terrorism.

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He refused to comment on the gang’s links to Emwazi or the identities of those Majeed was being instructed by, but said: “We suspect he was communicating with people in Syria.”

Commander Haydon said the arrests resulted in “probably the biggest” ever case in terms of digital information, involving two terabytes of data or 2million files, which would run for 75 miles if printed.

He added: “It does draw parallels with Paris. The attackers were intent on murder, intent on using a firearm, intent on causing fear, distress, disorder.”

As armed police raided his home in September 2014, Majeed tossed a self-loading Baikal pistol, magazine and silencer from his bedroom window and was arrested with Motasim.

After the other three defendants were arrested, Hassane flew back to the UK from Sudan and was pressing ahead with the plans. Police would not say why he was not stopped at the airport.

“That shows how determined Hassane in particular was to actually carry out his attack and this plot,” Mr Haydon said.

“He was the leader of the group and despite the arrest of all his associates he was still carrying out hostile reconnaissance at the police station and Territorial Army barracks and that to me proves how dangerous an individual he is.”

He gave orders to his school friend and second in command, Iraq-born Majeed, who orchestrated the emerging plan in Britain and was responsible for secret communications using the encrypted messages, known as “Mojahideen Secrets”.

(Image: Philip Coburn/Daily Mirror)

Suspected gang member Ayman Aziz is still wanted for questioning by Scotland Yard after he escaped after allegedly helping to plan the attacks. He is believed to be in Syria after travelling to Sudan with Hussane.

Momen Motasim, 21, was mysteriously cleared of any involvement in the plot after prosecutors dropped charges against him following two weeks of secret hearings.

Hassane, Majeed and the other two men will be sentenced at the end of April.

The Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage declined to comment to the Mirror, however a statement on their website reads: “Al Manaar is a centre where we have up to 3,000 people attending every week.

"It is not a membership club and anyone can come and pray. the suggestion that the mosque has radicalised young men shows how ignorant people are of Islam and how mosques work.”