Safaa Boular: how teenager came to mastermind UK’s first all-female terror plot

A teenage girl has been found guilty of planning a gun and grenade attack on London’s British Museum as part of the UK’s first all-female terrorist cell.

Safaa Boular, 18, of Vauxhall, in southwest London, is Britain’s youngest convicted female Islamic State terrorist, the BBC reports.

Boular was found guilty of two offences of preparation of terrorist acts by a jury at the Old Bailey yesterday. She was also found guilty for an earlier attempt to travel to Syria.

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At an earlier hearing, her 22-year-old sister, Rizlaine, and mother Mina Dich, 44, pleaded guilty to taking over the plot and planning their own attack following Boular’s arrest, in April last year.

“This was without doubt a major investigation for the counterterrorism command working jointly with the security service,” said Dean Haydon, the Met’s senior national coordinator for counterterrorism.

“Not only because it involved a family with murderous intent, but because it is the first all-female terrorist plot that’s been launched in the UK related to Daesh [Isis].”

So how did the all-female terror cell come about?

Prior to her arrest, Boular had been trying to reach Syria in order to marry an Isis fighter, the court heard.

She is believed to have been engaged to Naweed Hussain, a British-born Isis militant and “prolific Isis recruiter” based in Raqqa, according to The Guardian.

The couple first met on Instagram in 2016, and three months later declared their love for each other in what she called an “online Islamic marriage”.

They talked of “his-and-hers suicide belts” and fantasised about assassinating former US president Barack Obama.

Hussain sent money to Rizlaine, which she and her sister were to use to travel to Syria, but the sisters were intercepted by UK police before they could leave.

Hussain was reportedly killed in a drone attack in early April 2017, and Boular was arrested days later.

Rizlaine and her mother took over the reins, however, planning an attack that they discussed in coded terms based on the Alice in Wonderland tea party, with Rizlaine as the Mad Hatter.

On 25 April, the pair travelled to various landmarks in London, allegedly to check out potential targets. The following day they purchased a set of kitchen knives and a rucksack from a supermarket.

On 27 April, Rizlaine and a family friend, Khawla Barghouthi, were recorded on the phone discussing a planned knife attack, The Guardian reports. This prompted police to arrest Rizlaine and her mother in armed raids.

Barghouthi, 21, of Harlesden, northwest London, was also arrested and charged. She pleaded guilty to failing to disclose information about an act of terrorism.

All four women will be sentenced in the coming months.