An alleged Islamic extremist accused of plotting a Lee Rigby-style attack regarded a British jihadi killed in a Syria drone strike as his "hero", a court has heard.
Delivery driver Junead Khan, 25, is said to have planned a terror attack on US soldiers outside military bases in Britain.
The prosecution said that, after his arrest last July, detectives discovered he had shared a number of images associated with Islamic State on WhatsApp.
One was of an article with the headline "Exclusive: West can't defeat IS", which featured an interview with Abu Rahin Aziz, also known as Abu Abdullah al-Britani.
Cross-examining at Kingston Crown Court, prosecutor Max Hill told Khan that Aziz was “a hero” to him.
Khan told jurors that Aziz was someone he knew from the community in Luton, and someone who he knew to have travelled to Syria to fight for IS.
Mr Hill told him: "When his death by drone strike was announced in early July last year... you regarded him as a hero."
The defendant replied: "Hero in the sense that he was fighting and defending innocent civilians."
Jurors heard Khan "supported" what Aziz was doing until he was killed by a drone strike last July.
Khan is charged with making preparations for attacking military personnel in the UK between May 10 and July 14 last year, which he denies.
He is on trial alongside his uncle, Shazib Khan, 23, also from Luton, with whom he is jointly charged with making preparations for travelling to Syria to fight for IS.
The pair deny engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts between August 1 2014 and July 15 last year.
When asked whether he was aware his uncle had been communicating with Aziz in Syria, Junead Khan said he had not been.
However, he conceded that he supported the establishment of an Islamic state.
Junead Khan told jurors: "I support the shariah and caliphate. I wish to live under a shariah and caliphate, but I do not wish to become a fighter myself."
The trial continues.
