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Accused killer of UK soldier describes attack

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AP London
Last Updated : Dec 05 2013 | 11:23 PM IST
A man accused of murdering a British soldier on a London street says he attacked the first serviceman he spotted, saying "it was almost as if Allah had chosen him."
Michael Adebolajo told police in an interview played today at his trial that he and his co-accused decided a soldier was "the most fair target because he joins the army with kind of an understanding that your life is at risk."
"We sat in wait and it just so happened that he was the soldier that was spotted first," Adebolajo said in the police interview.
Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are accused of running Fusilier Lee Rigby down with a car before hacking him to death with knives and a meat cleaver near Woolwich Barracks in London on May 22.
In the interview, Adebolajo described himself as a soldier in a war between Muslims and the British people and said that after mowing Rigby down, he had tried to cut the soldier's jugular because it was the most humane way of killing him.
"We did not wish to give him much pain," he said. Jurors at the trial also heard how a search of Adebolajo's father's house turned up a cache of extremist literature, including "Extreme Islam" and works by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaida leader who was killed in 2011 in a drone strike in the mountains of Yemen.
In Adebowale's apartment, investigators found a computer and flash drive with material on jihad and martyrdom.
Adebolajo, 28, and 22-year-old Adebowale have pleaded not guilty to murder. Defense lawyers are expected to begin their case next week.

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First Published: Dec 05 2013 | 11:23 PM IST

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