'Terror' notes based on film Black Hawk Down

Ilyas Iqbal has told Manchester Crown Court he denies all the charges

Notes alleged to be useful to a terrorist were largely based on the film Black Hawk Down, a jury heard.

Ilyas Iqbal, 23, said he used the war film as the main inspiration for a document called Urban Combat which was found at his Blackburn home by police.

He is alleged to have been "intoxicated by the evil of terrorism" as he and two others prepared for violent jihad.

Mr Iqbal, along with Abbas Iqbal, 24, and Muhammed Ali Ahmad, 26, deny preparing for acts of terrorism.

Abbas Iqbal also denies disseminating terrorist publications and possessing documents likely to be useful to a terrorist.

Ilyas Iqbal pleaded not guilty at Manchester Crown Court to two counts of possessing documents likely to be useful to a terrorist.

The prosecution have argued the so-called "The Blackburn Resistance" filmed themselves in camouflage, crawling across a park in the town, and that the video of "al Qaida-style propaganda" was destined to be distributed abroad.

I was bored, I did what I do best with my favourite hobby and I started writing down tactics I had seen from Hollywood films and newsreels Ilyas Iqbal

Ilyas Iqbal's handwritten notes on Urban Combat and Attack Planning were discovered by counter-terrorism police in a weapons cabinet at the family home in Percival Street, Blackburn, the court heard.

Also in the cabinet were air rifles, knives, machetes, a sword, a crossbow, various ammunition and books on weaponry.

Ilyas Iqbal told the court he wrote Urban Combat two years ago when he worked as a security guard on a building site.

"I was bored, I did what I do best with my favourite hobby and I started writing down tactics I had seen from Hollywood films and newsreels," he said.

"The main place was from a Hollywood blockbuster called Black Hawk Down."

He said comments he wrote related to the plot of the film in which American forces attempt to go behind enemy lines in war-torn Somalia to "snatch and grab" two militiamen.

'Imagining myself'

Questioning him on Urban Combat, his barrister Roderick Price asked him: "Did you write it for a terrorist purpose?"

He replied: "No, I did not write it for any terrorist purpose."

"Did you think it would have been useful for a terrorist?", said Mr Price.

"Of course not, I have not had any military training," Ilyas Iqbal said.

"These were just my own thoughts off the top of my head, I cannot see how it would be useful to anyone but me.

"What is the story of Urban Combat?" asked his barrister.

Ilyas Iqbal replied: "It was imagining myself as a guerrilla commander fighting a larger force. Fantasising to make the time pass by."

Other segments of his notes came from watching news items on Al-Jazeera on Fox News, he said.

The trial continues.