An apprentice bricklayer convicted of trying to join Islamic State fighters in Syria trained for battle at a paintballing centre, a court heard.

Humza Ali, 20, posed for photos at a paintballing centre in Solihull in the West Midlands alongside three other men linked to the extremist group.

A three-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard that Ali wanted to "fight until I die" in Syria.

In an undercover recording he told a fifth IS sympathiser that his mother had confiscated his passport.

Image: The photos were seen in court as proof some of the men were preparing for terror acts

Ali, of Ward End, Birmingham, denied dissemination of terrorist material and trying to travel to Syria for terrorist purposes.


He will be sentenced in January.

Anne Whyte QC, prosecuting, said: "They were able to use the occasion to take a sort of promotional photo sealing their common sense of identity.

"It was a bonding act of preparation between men of like mind and like intent. They were doing what passed, in their limited circumstances, for training."

Image: Humza Ali has been convicted of trying to join IS in Syria

Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Gabriel Rasmus and Abdelatif Gaini also featured in the photographs found on Ali's phone.

Ahmed, 27, was jailed for eight years for his part in passing £3,000 to the "man in the hat", Brussels bombing suspect Mohamed Abrini.

Image: Mohammed Ali Ahmed (left) and Abdelatif Gaini at the paintballing centre

Rasmus, 29, of Lozells in Birmingham, was jailed for four years at the Old Bailey last month after being arrested in April last year while en route to Syria to engage in terrorism.

Gaini, 41, seen near a military vehicle in one of the pictures, is now thought to be in Syria.