Members of the alleged terrorist gang accused of plotting to blow up seven transatlantic flights made martyrdom videos in which they pledged to take revenge for American and British foreign policy in Muslim lands, a court was told today.

Content from the six videos made by the alleged plotters and discovered by police was read out and played to the jury in the trial of eight men accused of planning to kill thousands of people in a series of simultaneous attacks late in 2006.

Each of the videos featured a suspect sitting in front of black flags with Arabic writing. The first shown to the jury was made by Umar Islam, who said that he intended to carry out mass-murder to take “revenge for the acts of the USA in the Muslim lands and their accomplices, such as the British and the Jews”.

He says in the film, which was discovered during a search of his Kia car by police in 2006, that innocent people deserved to die because they had not “put down” their leaders.

“You are just sitting there, you are still funding the Army, you have not put down your leaders, you have not pressured them enough,” he said. “Most of them are too busy watching Home And Away and EastEnders, complaining about the World Cup, drinking your alcohol, to care about anything. That is all you seem to care about and I know because I have come from that.”

Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution, said that the gang was arrested as they were in the final stages of planning their operation.

Mr Islam, 29, was heard by the jury to say: “This is from Umar Islam, the son of Islam, to the people of the world, to let you know the reasons for this action which, Inshallah [God willing], I am going to undertake. This is an obligation on me as a Muslim to wage jihad against the kuffar [non believers].”

Justifying his plans by referring to British and American foreign policy and that of “the Jews,” an apparent reference to Israel, he adds: “We will not leave this path until you leave our lands until you feel what we are feeling. This is revenge for the acts of the USA in the Muslim lands and their accomplices, such as the British and the Jews.”

Naming Iraq, Afghanistan and the occupied territories, he said: “If you want to kill our women and children then the same thing will happen to you. This is not a joke. If you think you can go into our land and do what you are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine and keep on supporting those that are fighting against the Muslims and think it will not come back on to your doorstep then you have another thing coming.”

In a search of the garage of one of the accused, Assad Sarwar, 27, suicide videos were found belonging to five of his co-defendants, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Waheed Zaman, 23, Tanvir Hussain, 26, Arafat Khan, 26, and Abdulla Ali, 27. They, too, promised to take revenge on the US and Britain for their foreign policy.

Sitting in front of a similar black flag, Mr Ali described himself as the leader of the group and said that he had aspired to martyrdom since the age of 15 or 16. “You show more care and concern for animals than you do for the Muslim Umah (Islamic nation),” he said.

If foreign policy did not change, he added, “expect floods of martyr operations against you and we will take our revenge and anger, ripping amongst your people and scattering the people and your body parts and your people’s body parts responsible for these wars and oppression decorating the streets.”

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