London attackers wanted to set off religious war

The Islamist fanatics, who hacked a serviceman in London yesterday afternoon in broad daylight, share the al-Qaeda ideology and had sought to kindle a religious war in the British capital, according to video tapes made at the scene of the murder in Woolwich in southeast London, TASS reported.

The attackers were two dark-skinned young men armed with firearms and machetes.

They inflicted multiple lethal wounds on their victim and left the body lying on the road. Both were injured in a subsequent shootout with police and are now in separate hospitals, receiving treatment for their wounds.

One of them is reportedly in critical condition. After killing the soldier, the extremists stopped passersby and demanded that they film the massacre on their mobile phones.

Police in London and other cities are patrolling districts inhabited by immigrants to prevent ethnic clashes. There have been attacks on mosques in some areas. The Woolwich murder has been qualified as a terrorist act.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who was in France on an official visit when the incident occurred, urgently returned to London. He will chair a session of the Cobra emergency response committee this morning.