London bombings 'exposed hypocrisy' - al-Qaida No.2

The al-Qaida terror group’s second in command tonight praised the four London suicide bombings which killed 52 innocent people on July 7, saying the mass killings exposed Western “hypocrisy”.

In a reference to British threats to deport anti-West Muslim clerics to their countries of origin, Ayman al-Zawahri said: “This blessed attack revealed the real hypocritical face of the West.”

His comments were on a tape aired on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV and monitored in Cairo.

Al-Zawahri also criticised the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s weekend elections, saying the polls took place under the control of the “lords of war”.