The alleged leader of a gang accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic jets has said it was time for the West "to be destroyed".

Ahmed Abdulla Ali made the claim in a martyrdom video shown to jurors this morning.

The 27-year-old is one of eight men accused of plotting to launch co-ordinated suicide attacks on passenger jets flying from London Heathrow to the US and Canada.

Speaking in front of a black flag covered in Arabic writing, Ali said: "This the opportunity to punish and humiliate the kuffar (unbelievers), to teach them a lesson they will never forget.

"It is to tell them we Muslim people have pride."

With a pointed reference to Osama bin Laden he added: "Sheikh Osama warned you many times to leave our lands or you will be destroyed, and now the time has come for you to be destroyed."

Ali goes on to attack British and American foreign policy for "slaughtering our people" in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Wearing a traditional black and white headscarf, he accuses the unbelievers of showing more concern for animals by organising foxhunting demonstrations and says he considers no-one innocent.

Just before wiping the sweat from his brow with a towel, he adds: "I was over the moon that Allah has given me the opportunity to lead this blessed operation."

Six of the defendants made suicide videos recorded on a Sony camcorder.

They were found in the Assad Sarwar's car and the majority on a tape found in the garage of his High Wycombe home.

The defendants are: Ali, aka Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Prospect Hill, Walthamstow, Sarwar, 27, of Walton Drive, High Wycombe, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Nottingham Road, Leyton, east London, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Priory Road, Barking, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Denver Road, Stoke Newington, north London, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, of Farnan Avenue, Walthamstow, Waheed Zaman, 23, of Queen's Road, Walthamstow and Islam, aka Brian Young, 29, of Bushey Road, Plaistow, east London.

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