Oklahoma bomber says sorry as execution looms

Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh said he was sorry 168 people died at his hands, but blamed the "bullying" US Government.

He is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana tomorrow, for killing 168 people in 1995.

It was the worst act of terrorism on US soil.

McVeigh wrote a series of letters to his hometown newspaper The Buffalo News.

He said: "I am sorry these people had to lose their lives. But that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be."

McVeigh said he did was necessary to defend the personal freedom of all Americans and exact revenge for the government raids at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas.

The bombing, he wrote, was "a legit tactic" in a war against what he considers an out-of-control federal government.

McVeigh said he sometimes wished he had carried out a series of assassinations against police and Government officials instead.

In the letters, McVeigh insisted he has no fear of his execution. An agnostic, he said he will "improvise, adapt and overcome" if it turns out that there is an afterlife.

He wrote: "If I am going to hell, I'm gonna have a lot of company."