Terror plot 'planned to teach West a lesson'

The leader of a group of alleged Islamist terrorists accused of plotting to blow up passenger jets vowed to teach the West "a lesson they will never forget", a court was told yesterday.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, made his declaration during a 16-minute "martyrdom" video played in Woolwich Crown Court, east London. In a black and white headscarf and in front of a black flag with Arabic writing, Ali said: "This is the opportunity to punish and humiliate the kuffar [unbelievers], to teach them a lesson they will never forget. It is to tell them we Muslim people have pride. Sheikh Osama warned you many times to leave our lands or you will be destroyed, and now the time has come for you to be destroyed."

He accused "the unbelievers' of showing more concern for animals by organising foxhunting demonstrations, and says he considers no one innocent.

Eight men, all from the London area and all in their twenties, are on trial accused of conspiring to murder thousands of people by exploding home-made liquid bombs on aircraft in August 2006. Six of the defendants made suicide videos recorded on a Sony camcorder.

The case continues.