AN AMERICAN terrorist-turned-supergrass who conspired with Islamist extremists to blow up British targets was a follower of Abu Hamza alMasri, the jailed cleric, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Muhammad Babar, who has admitted having links to al-Qaeda, was taken to court by armed police amid maximum security to give evidence against his former accomplices.

He allegedly left America days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to fight in Pakistan, even though his mother, who worked in the World Trade Centre, had narrowly escaped death when the aircraft hit.

Babar, 31, told the court that he met Omar Bakri Muhammad, the exiled leader of alMuhajiroun, a radical Islamist group, during a visit to Britain. He was later in contact with Abu Hamza and spent time in Pakistan preparing for jihad (holy war) with 15 to 20 “brothers”, mostly from Britain.

The prosecution claims that these men included six of the seven defendants standing trial for conspiring to cause an explosion in Britain. Targets that they discussed included Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, a Central London nightclub, a train or power supplies.

Babar has pleaded guilty in New York to terrorist-related offences, including what the American authorities described as the “British bomb plot”. He is the first supergrass linked to al-Qaeda to give evidence in a Western court and has been given immunity from prosecution in relation to his evidence.

Armed anti-terrorism police wearing flak jackets stood guard outside the court, which was cleared of media and members of the public while the former pharmacy student was brought in by US marshals.

He was taken to the Old Bailey amid tight security in a convoy of vehicles with a helicopter overhead. Roads were sealed off as, escorted by police cars, the unmarked prison van crossed Central London. It arrived at the back of the Old Bailey and Babar was taken through a rear entrance while a cordon of armed officers excluded any other vehicles.

One of the charges that Babar admitted was conspiring to promote material support. This relates to the acquisition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser and aluminium powder, which the prosecution alleges were components for explosives to be used in attacks in Britain. Babar said that he became a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun while at university, when he became angered by the Gulf War.

Speaking in an American accent, without looking at the defendants in the dock, he said that he became radicalised during the Gulf War.

He joined various Islamic groups at university in New York, concentrating on those that shared his belief that Muslims should unite and “fight back as a unit”.

Babar cited his influences as Abu Hamza and Bakri Muhammad. He followed Abu Hamza’s website proclamations on Sharia and met Bakri Muhammad in person, later communicating with him by e-mail and telephone. The British “brothers”, with him in Pakistan for jihad, were mostly from London and Crawley, West Sussex, he said. The names he listed were, the prosecution says, those used by the defendants while in Pakistan.

Asked what he meant by brothers, Babar said: “Most of the time it just means your Muslim brothers, but it could mean Arabs or members of al-Qaeda.”

Babar was born in Pakistan but moved to America as a child, occasionally visiting his home country. He moved back to Pakistan between 2001 and 2004, setting up an al- Muhajiroun office in Peshawar.

He said that, for a while, he had wanted to fight in Palestine or Chechnya, but the “opportunity never presented itself”. When the September 11 attacks happened, which his mother survived, he realised that the US would invade Afghanistan and decided it was the “best time” to go and fight.

It took him a week to get a visa and he flew to Pakistan, via a visit to Britain, arranged by an al-Muhajiroun contact living in Britain.

After praying at a mosque in Southall, West London, and attending a demonstration at the Pakistan High Commission, Babar went to the London al-Muhajiroun office and met Bakri Muhammad. While in Britain he told his al-Muhajiroun contact that he wanted to travel to Pakistan but had no savings. He was given £300 with the promise of more money when he reached there.

The jury was told earlier in the trial that Babar’s contact with the defendants related mainly to developing expertise in explosives and acquiring bomb parts. This training was initially directed towards fighting in Afghanistan and only later focused on British targets.

Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton; Shujah Mahmood, 18, Waheed Mahmood, 34, Omar Khyam, 24, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 24, of Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey, all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life between October 2003 and March 2004.

Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of fertiliser for the purposes of terrorism. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder, also for the purposes of terrorism.

The trial continues.

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