A British Islamic extremist faces a life sentence after being found guilty of planning a terror attack on American military personnel in Britain, the Daily mail reported.

Delivery driver Junead Khan, 25, used his agency job with a pharmaceutical firm as cover to scout United States Air Force (Usaf) bases in East Anglia, his trial heard.

Detectives discovered he had been exchanging chilling online messages with Daesh fighter in Syria calling himself Abu Hussain, including describing an attack on military personnel they compared to the brutal murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013.

Prosecutors claimed Hussain was British-born fanatic Junaid Hussain, who was killed in a US drone strike in the IS stronghold of Raqqa just weeks after his link with the planned UK attack was discovered.

After Khan's arrest, police found pictures on his phone of him posing in his bedroom with a Daesh-style black flag later found in the attic. His computer was found to contain an al Qaida bomb manual and Amazon searches for a large combat knife.

Commander Dean Haydon, the head of Scotland Yard's SO15 counter-terrorism unit, said: "Junead Khan faces years in prison for the atrocious acts he planned."

"Around a year before his arrest, local officers reached out to him. They offered to help him follow a positive life path. Junead Khan's refusal spiralled into extremism and plotting acts of terrorism."

Khan was found guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts between May and July last year, by the jury at Kingston Crown Court in London on Friday.

He was also convicted of a second charge, jointly with his uncle, Shazib Khan, 23, of preparing to go to Syria to join Daesh.

The prosecution had alleged that Junead Khan planned to travel to Syria with his relative but changed to plan a UK attack, either on British or US service personnel. 

Source : MENA