8 'Plotted to Blow Up' 7 Airliners

An Islamic terrorist cell plotted a suicide mission to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in midflight, killing more than 1,500 passengers, a prosecutor charged yesterday as a trial began for eight men in London. The explosives were to be hidden in soft drink bottles and set off by detonators improvised from disposable cameras, reports the Guardian.

The alleged plot was foiled by counter-terrorism experts the summer of 2006. The defendants are all British Muslims in their 20s. They pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder. The team planned "a civilian death toll from an act of terror on an almost unprecedented scale," said the prosecutor. "They are men with the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic." (More terror trial stories.)