Undercover reporter claims he was ‘recruited’ by ISIS to target London Bridge 11 months before terrorist attack in chilling BBC Inside Out London programme
His recruiter, Junaid Hussain, told him 'he could learn how to make a bomb, make a fake suicide vest and to attack a victim with a knife'
AN undercover reporter claims he was “recruited” by ISIS to attack London Bridge 11 months before three jihadis killed eight there in a chillingly similar assault.
BBC Inside Out London contacted Junaid Hussain, an ISIS recruiter from Birmingham, using Twitter.
Hussain, 21, then used encrypted messaging to tell the reporter he could be taught bomb-making, how to create a fake suicide vest and how to attack victims with a knife to inflict maximum damage.
The BBC said the details were strikingly similar to the attack on London Bridge on June 3, in which all three attackers Khuram Butt, 27, Rachid Redouane, 30, and Youssef Zaghba, 22, were shot and killed by police at the scene.
A second recruiter took over after Hussain was killed by a US drone in Raqqa, Syria, and in July last year laid out the plot to target London Bridge.
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The reporter, whose probe will be shown on BBC1 London at 7.30pm Monday, said: "In July 2016, we discovered that the terrorist organisation was touting on Twitter and Facebook for British Muslims to stage attacks at specific London locations.
"We began conversing with one of their recruiters, who then invited us to chat privately on a secret messaging site. The authorities were fully aware of our contact with the terrorist organisation."