Accused Soldier-Stabber Testifies: I Love al-Qaeda

One of two men who allegedly killed British soldier Lee Rigby has proclaimed his support for al-Qaeda in court: "I love them; they're my brothers," Michael Adebolajo said, per the BBC. But "I have never met them." He called himself a soldier in a "war," saying he prayed to Allah the night before the attack that "we strike a soldier and a soldier only." Troops, he said earlier, were the "most fair target": They enlisted "with kind of an understanding that your life is at risk." The AP adds that he hoped the death of a soldier could "indirectly save the lives of many."

Adebolajo also said he'd grown up as a Christian, attending church each Sunday and reading the Bible. His friends as a child were mainly British whites, he said earlier. In his first year as a student at Greenwich University, he became a Muslim. "When I came to Islam I realized that ... real success is not just what you can acquire, but really is if you make it to paradise, because then you can relax." Both Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale deny murdering Rigby. (More Lee Rigby stories.)