Two men convicted of drive-by shooting plot in Britain

Two men on Wednesday was convicted of plotting to a drive-by gun attack to kill police and soldiers in Britain.

Tarik Hassane, 22, and Suhaib Majeed, 21, both of west London, were convicted of conspiring to commit a terrorist murder.

Two other men, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26, pleaded guilty to firearms offences. They were found not guilty of conspiring to commit a terrorist murder.

Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), said: "They were planning to target police or military personnel before escaping on a moped, but members of the public also could have been victims had their plans not been thwarted."

The evidence uncovered by the Counter Terrorism Command's investigation showed that Hassane was the leader of the group, and having pledged an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) on July 9, 2014, was determined to carry out a terrorist attack in Britain.

Hassane, a medical student who split his time between London and university in Sudan, was childhood friend with Majeed, a physics undergraduate at Kings College London. They researched and planned their attack using coded communications.

Police found Majeed downloaded encrypted software to talk to extremist groups overseas and whilst police have never confirmed where the person was, officers do know they were in the same time zone as Syria.

One of the five firearms found by police had both a silencer and ammunition and was intended for use in the attacks.

Majeed, Hamlet and Cuffy were arrested between Sept. 24 and 26, 2014. Hassane was arrested on Oct. 7, 2014.

All four men will be sentenced at a later date. Endit