Witnesses told of a gruesome scene in which the man was hit by a car, then hacked with cleavers and his body dumped in the middle of the road in Woolwich, southeast London.

READ MORE: London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier

The two suspects in the killing were injured in a confrontation with police and have been taken to two hospitals, where they are being treated.

CNN affiliate ITN aired a video showing a man with bloody hands and holding a meat cleaver, who says, “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

The man, who seems to have a London accent, carries on: “The only reasons we killed this man this is because Muslims are dying daily. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth.

“We apologize that women had to see this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you.”

Those statements spurred the Muslim Council of Britain to issue a strong statement to condemn the attack as “a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam,” as well as to urge Muslim and non-Muslims alike “to come together in solidarity to ensure the forces of hatred do not prevail.”

In another video — obtained by the British tabloid newspaper The Sun and apparently shot in the same place around the same time — the meat-cleaver-wielding suspect apologized to women who’d witnessed the attack, before quickly adding “but in our lands our women have to see the same.”

“You people will never be safe,” the man said. “Remove your government. They don’t care about you. You think (Prime Minister) David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? … Get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so we can all live in peace.”

The victim is believed to be a serving soldier who was based at a nearby barracks, Nick Raynsford, a member of Parliament, told CNN.

The soldier had apparently been on duty in central London and was returning to the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich when he was attacked, Raynsford said.

Speaking in Paris, Prime Minister David Cameron said there were “strong indications” that the man’s killing was a terrorist incident.

He said he would be returning early from the official trip to handle the situation and will be back in London Wednesday night.

“It is the most appalling crime,” he said alongside French President Francois Hollande, vowing that the United Kingdom will not buckle” in the face of threats to its security.

A short time later, after leading a meeting of the country’s civil emergency committee known as COBRA, UK Home Secretary Theresa May offered a similar assessment of the situation and a similar message of resolve.

“We have seen terrorism on the streets of Britain before, and we have always stood against it,” she said. “Despicable acts like this will not go unpunished.”

Cameron declined to confirm whether the man killed was a serving soldier, while Britain’s defense ministry said it was investigating to see whether that’s the case.

As they did, authorities increased security around Woolwich and all military barracks in London, a British government source said.

British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said the killing was a “very shocking incident” and that the UK takes the safety of its troops “very seriously,” as he headed into the COBRA meeting.

London Mayor Boris Johnson tweeted: “This afternoon’s attack in Woolwich is a sickening deluded and unforgivable act of violence. My thoughts are with the victim and his family.”

That sentiment was echoed by many others — such as May, the home secretary, who described it as “a sickening and barbaric attack”; a “concerned” Queen Elizabeth II; and Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who predicted the “whole country will be horrified” by what he called the “appalling events.”

Commander Simon Letchworth told reporters in Woolwich that local officers had responded when an assault was reported at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday and a firearms unit was called to the scene. British police do not usually carry firearms.

“Two men, who we believe from early reports to have been carrying weapons, were shot by police,” he said. “They have both been taken to separate London hospitals and are receiving treatment for their injuries.”

‘They were hacking at this poor guy’

Eyewitnesses have given gruesome details of the killing.

Michael Atlee told CNN he and friends heard gunshots and when they turned the corner saw a pool of blood on the sidewalk and a trail of blood leading into the road.

“It just looked like a mess,” Atlee said. “It just looked like a bloody mess.”

The man killed appeared to be wearing a T-shirt for Help for Heroes, a charity that helps military veterans, he said.

Another witness, who gave his name only as James, told London’s LBC 97.3 radio station that he saw two men standing by the victim.

At first he thought they were trying to help the man but then saw two meat cleavers, like a butcher would have.

“They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,” he told the radio station, as if they were trying to remove his organs.

“These two guys were crazed. They were just not there. They were just animals.”

The men appeared to want to be filmed, he said, saying that one of the attackers went over to a bus and asked people to take photos of him as if he wanted to be on TV.

He said the two men rushed at police when they arrived, at which point shots were fired and both men went down.

Lauren Collins told CNN: “I still am quite shaken at what I’ve seen — I’ve seen a victim of an awful attack, and I’ve seen a body of a young man.”

Another witness, Woolwich Theatre owner Adrian Green, said the incident was “shocking” but did not reflect the true nature of the area.

Raynsford said the military based at the centuries-old barracks had a close relationship with the local community. Woolwich is a mixed, multicultural area, he added.

CNN’s Mariano Castillo, Joshua Levs, Atika Shubert, Stephanie Halasz, Kim Chakanetsa and Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.

The FBI in Florida confirmed to the Herald this morning that the suspect, now identified as Ibragim Todashev, was shot in Orlando by an agent “conducting official duties.” 

A friend of the slain man said the suspect was approached by federal agents in relation to the April 15 Boston Marathon twin bombings because he was a mixed martial arts fighter who may have known bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Orlando TV station WESH is reporting. CBS is also reporting the suspect was from Chechnya and may have been heading back to the lawless Russian region today.

Tsarnaev, killed in a wild shootout with police in Watertown just after midnight April 19, was also an MMA fighter and fellow Chechen who turned to terror. The FBI also questioned a friend of Tsarnaev’s in New Hampshire last week. That former Chechen rebel told the Herald he did not know of Tsarnaev’s bombing plot that killed three and wounded more than 260 people on Boylston Street the day of the race.

The FBI in Tampa told the Herald this morning they are investigating the fatal shooting in Orlando now, according to FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier.

“We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. The incident occurred in Orlando Florida,” Couvertier said via email. “The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased. We do not have any further details at this time. We expect to have more information later this morning.”

In a statement to the Associated Press, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the FBI agent acted on an imminent threat and shot the interview subject. The agent was sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Orlando police also told the Herald the FBI is in charge of the fatal shooting at the Windhover Apartments.

It is not clear if the slain Orlando suspect was also friends with the bomber’s brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is now locked up in a Devens federal hospital prison accused of helping unleash a week of terror during the marathon.

According to public records, Todashev was arrested May 4 on a charge of aggravated battery by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and was free on a $3,500 bond. His attorney, who has an open request with the court demanding discovery in the felony case, was not immediately available for comment.

Todashev’s fight records show he was a lightweight who hadn’t stepped into the ring since July 27.

Developing …

Here’s a surprising thing. Almost everywhere — in Pakistan, in Indonesia, in Texas — terrorists offer you tea. Sometimes a full meal.

Otherwise, they are quite different from one another. Their motivations vary — from irredentism, to pleasing the God they claim to worship, to cleansing the Earth of the mud-people that contaminate the world of purity in their minds. Some live in war zones with grievances that are easy for outsiders to grasp; for others, living in the cushy West, the war that is taking place is principally in their own minds, often over identity. Some are paid, some are blackmailed. Some are recruited, and some recruit themselves to their own holy war, whether at home or far away.

Read Jessica’s article on talking with terrorists in Foreign Policy.

(Guardian UK)

A top US official who was in Libya during the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi has given the first public account of the event.

Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, said he was “stunned” by UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s comments that the attack was spontaneous.

He also told lawmakers he received a phone call from US Envoy Christopher Stevens, just before he died.

Three other Americans were killed in the attack on 11 September 2012.

During several hours of emotional testimony before a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday, Mr Hicks described the moment he was informed of the attack.

He said he was in Tripoli watching TV when he received a phone call from Ambassador Stevens.

“Greg, we’re under attack,” the ambassador reportedly told Mr Hicks by telephone before the line cut.

He later received a phone call from the Libyan prime minister informing him of Ambassador Steven’s death.

“I think it is the saddest phone call I have ever had in my life,” Mr Hicks said.

After the disrupted phone call with Ambassador Stevens, Mr Hicks said he received calls from Libyans using the ambassador’s phone who said they had the envoy with them.

But Mr Hicks decided not to act on the calls, fearing an ambush.

UN Ambassador Susan Rice has been the focus of outrage from Republicans in Congress, for giving the news media what has been acknowledged as an incorrect explanation for the attack.

She said on a Sunday chat show on 16 September that the attack had grown out of an anti-US protest, while other officials have said they knew at the time it was an organised, armed assault, possibly by an Islamist militant group.

“My jaw dropped and I was embarrassed,” Mr Hicks said on his reaction to her interview.

Some Republicans accuse the White House of hiding information about the attack, while Democrats say the issue has become politicised.

The BBC’s Jane O’Brien in Washington says Wednesday’s testimony will do nothing to dispel Republican concerns that President Barack Obama tried to cover up a terrorist attack in the run-up to a presidential election.

Democrats will continue to say there was no attempt to mislead the public, our correspondents adds.

‘Need to evacuate’

At Wednesday’s hearing, Mr Hicks expressed frustration with the lack of a US military response during the night-time attack, saying one could have deterred a second assault.

The Pentagon has said nothing could have been done to assist the Americans in Benghazi.

Mr Hicks and two other state department employees criticised an official review undertaken after the attack, saying many people with first-hand knowledge of the event were not interviewed and it focused too much on lower-ranking officials.

The review found that poor leadership and management in two state department teams led to a security plan that was “inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place”.

Mr Hicks told the panel he spoke to people at the State Department and to Libyan officials, and had a conversation with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton around 02:00 on the night of the attack.

“Secretary of State Clinton called me along with her senior staff… and she asked me what was going on. And I briefed her on developments,” Mr Hicks told congressmen.

“Most of the conversation was about the search for Ambassador Stevens. It was also about what we were going to do with our personnel in Benghazi, and I told her that we would need to evacuate. She said that was the right thing to do.”

The ambassador died of smoke inhalation when he was trapped in the burning consulate building, after armed men stormed the compound.

State department employee Sean Smith and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty also died in the attack.

Mrs Clinton angrily defended her handling of the Benghazi raid in a series of hearings on Capitol Hill in January.

Investigators combing through the aftermath of the deadly Boston Marathon terrorist attack have recovered a circuit board in the area of one of the two blasts that they believe was used to detonate the bombs, according to an official briefed on the investigation.

Investigators have also recovered components of the bombs, enabling them to determine what they consisted of two 6-liter pressure cookers packed with nails, ball bearings, and other metal. The makeshift bombs were placed in black duffel bags, the official said.

The one that exploded first was placed on the ground on Boylston Street, across from finish-line viewing stands where dignitaries, including Governor Deval Patrick, had been sitting earlier. The second bag was placed on the ground about 75 to 100 yards down the street, outside the Forum restaurant at 755 Boylston St., according to the official.

The bombs, detonated about 12 seconds apart, killed three people and injured 176 others, including 17 who are still in critical condition. The attacks created a scene of bloody caranage near the finish line of a race that is a colorful rite of spring and draws runners from around the world, who are cheered on by happy crowds.

President Obama, speaking to reporters at the White House this morning, called the attacks a “heinous and cowardly act” and said that the FBI was investigating it “as an act of terrorism.”

“We will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice,” he said.

Eight-year-old Martin Richard of Boston was one of those killed in the attack. A second person who died in the blast was also identified today. She was Krystle Campbell, 29, of Arlington, her grandmother said. The name of the third person killed was not released.

Doctors at several major hospitals in Boston said earlier that they had seen evidence that the bombs contained some kind of shrapnel.

“An act of cowardice of this severity cannot be justified or explained. It can only be answered.” 

 

NEW YORK — A judge said he found it “stunning” to hear Monday that federal budget woes could delay the start of a terrorism trial for Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan’s comment came as he set deadlines for lawyers to submit pre-trial arguments regarding Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he conspired to kill Americans in his role as al-Qaeda’s top propagandist after Sept. 11, 2001.

The charismatic al-Qaeda spokesman was shown in early October 2001, sitting with bin Laden and current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in what became a heavily watched propaganda video. Prosecutors say he had called on every Muslim to join the fight against the United States, declaring that “jihad is a duty.”

Ghaith, who was brought to the U.S. last month, was handcuffed as he was led into a courtroom on Monday. The handcuffs were taken off before he listened through headphones to an Arabic translator.

Kaplan said he was considering starting the trial as early as September, drawing protests from defence lawyers who said the 5.1 per cent across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration required all public defenders to be furloughed for more than five weeks by autumn.

The judge left open the possibility that the trial may not begin until next year.

Al-Jazeera / The Associated PressThis image made available by Al-Jazeera shows Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and spokesman

Defence lawyers said they expected to ask the judge to toss out a 22-page statement Abu Ghaith provided after his Feb. 28 arrest in Jordan.

They also said they were likely to seek a change of venue. The federal courthouse in lower Manhattan is located just blocks from the World Trade Center complex.

Efforts to change the location where a trial is held or to challenge post-arrest statements have been unsuccessful in previous terrorism trials in Manhattan.

The single notable exception occurred when the Obama administration announced it was going to conduct a civil trial in New York for Khalid Sheik Mohammad, who has claimed responsibility for the 9-11 attacks, and four others, only to return the cases to military tribunal proceedings amidst an uproar over security concerns.

The assailant shot once, narrowly missing his head. The gun locked, Hedegaard wrestled with him, and the young man fled.

Given Hedegaard’s criticism of Islam and his even being taken to court on criminal charges of “hate speech,” the attack reverberated in Denmark and beyond. The Associated Press reported this incident, which was featured prominently in the British press, including the Guardian, the Daily Mail and the Spectator, as well as in Canada’s National Post. The Wall Street Journal published an article by him about his experience.

When the New York Times belatedly bestirred itself on Feb. 28 to inform its readership about the assassination attempt, it did not so much report on the event itself but on alleged Muslim support for Hedegaard’s right to express himself.

As implied by the title of the article, “Danish Opponent of Islam Is Attacked, and Muslims Defend His Right to Speak,” NYT journalist Andrew Higgins mainly celebrates Danish Islam:

“Muslim groups in the country, which were often criticized during the cartoon furor for not speaking out against violence and even deliberately fanning the flames, raised their voices to condemn the attack on Mr. Hedegaard and support his right to express his views, no matter how odious [emphasis added].”

And this is the theme that pervades the piece. For example,Higgins quotes Karen Haekkerup, the minister of social affairs and integration,  who says he is pleased that “the Muslim community is now active in the debate.”

(For a close dissection of Higgin’s agitprop, see Diana West’s evisceration; see also Andrew Bostom’s article where he compares Higgins to Walter Duranty, the NYT reporter who whitewashed Stalin’s crimes.)

Essentially, Higgins delegitimizes Hedegaard. In addition to the snarky “no matter how odious” reference, Higgins dismisses Hedegaard’s “opinions” as “a stew of anti-Muslim bile and conspiracy-laden forecasts of a coming civil war” and claims the Dane has “fanned wild conspiracy theories and sometimes veered into calumny.”

These characterizations of Hedegaard’s work are a vicious travesty. A few specifics:

1. What Higgins airily dismisses as Hedegaard’s “opinions” is in fact a substantial oeuvre published in several academic books and articles and  laden with facts and references dealing with Islamic ideology, Muslim history and Muslim immigration to Denmark. 

To the best of my knowledge, no one has claimed these writings contain sloppy scholarship or wrong references. As Hedegaard puts it, “I am a university-trained historian and take my craft seriously.”

The real criticism of Hedegaard is not about his scholarship – but that he raises difficult and even unpleasant questions.

2. Higgins accuses Hedegaard of “forecast[ing] … a coming war.” However, what Hedegaard forecasts is not his won. He is only reporting what Islamist texts and spokesmen themselves predict and advocate.

3. Higgins writes that Hedegaard “is a major figure in what a study last year by a British group, Hope Not Hate, identified as a global movement of ‘Islamophobic’ writers, bloggers and activists, whose ‘anti-Muslim rhetoric poisons the political discourse, sometimes with deadly effect’.”

“Islamophobia” is a silly neologism intended to vilify anyone who criticizes Islam or even Islamism.

As for “sometimes with deadly effect,” Higgins nastily insinuates that Hedegaard is responsible for deadly attacks on Muslims when, in fact, he was the victim not the perpetrator of an attack.

(Hope not Hate, by the way, lists both the Middle East Forum and me in its Counter-Jihad Report; it flatters me as the “Powerhouse behind the international counter-jihadist movement.”)

In conclusion, Higgins has written a stew of shoddy aspersions of a brave, distinguished and accomplished writer with whom I co-authored an article “Something Rotten in Denmark?” in 2002 and who is currently a colleague at the Middle East Forum.

Shame on Higgins for this article and shame on The New York Times for publishing him.

Dr. Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. More articles can be found at  DanielPipes.org

A spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutors’ office told a news conference at the airport, known as Zaventem, that eight “heavily armed and hooded” thieves had driven onto the tarmac in two black vehicles with flashing lights, local media reported. “This was not a random robbery. It was well-prepared – these were professionals,” said the spokeswoman, Anja Bijens, adding that the robbers had worn police uniforms and carried submachine guns. No shots were fired and no one was hurt.

The theft delivers a blow to Antwerp’s role as a diamond center at a time when the city, a diamond trading and cutting hub for centuries, is struggling to fend off a challenge from low-wage diamond cutters in India and elsewhere.

“The fact that this happened is a big problem for us. We have our number one position to defend. Security is obviously very important,” said Caroline De Wolf, a spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, an industry body that promotes the diamond business in Belgium. “We are shocked by the fact this could ever happen. We are all wondering: how is this possible?”

Diamonds traded in Antwerp last year had a total value of $51.9 billion, accounting for 80 percent of the world’s rough diamond trade and 50 percent of trade in polished gems. Ms. De Wolf said diamonds from Antwerp had been targeted by thieves before but Monday’s robbery was the biggest she could recall.

Helvetic Airways, an independent Swiss airline that operated the plane targeted in the robbery, said security for valuable cargo is normally the responsibility of the airport and the security company hired to transport the shipment to the plane. An airline spokesman in Zurich declined to comment further. Diamonds purchased in Antwerp for either cutting or sale abroad are usually taken to the Brussels airport under police escort in armored security vans and the thieves took advantage of a brief gap in this tightly guarded procedure during the loading of cargo. No shots were fired and no arrests have been reported. Police said they had found the burned remains of a vehicle believed to have been used in the robbery near the airport on Monday night.

A statement issued by the airport said that the robbers had “entered the premises of the airport aboard two vehicles that had crossed the fence.” The Zurich-bound flight, said the statement, had been canceled. It gave no details of how the vehicles had crossed the security fence and barriers.

The spokeswoman for the Antwerp diamond center said she believed the robbers had cut a hole in the fence and then raced to the Zurich-bound aircraft to grab gems from the cargo hold while passengers onboard waited for takeoff.

Ms. Bijens, the prosecutor’s spokeswoman, said the thieves seized at least 120 packages of diamonds but added that not all the shipment had been stolen.