Britain's national security chiefs met on Thursday as counter-terrorism police investigated the murder of a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamic extremists.

The suspects were shot by police after the "appalling" attack and spent the night in hospital under armed guard.

Wielding knives including a meat cleaver, two men carried out the attack in broad daylight near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London, then delivered an Islamist tirade to passers-by.

The victim has yet to be formally identified, but government sources confirmed that he was a member of the armed forces.

Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "appalling crime", adding: "There are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident."

He cut short a visit to Paris to fly back for a meeting of the government's emergency response committee, COBRA, which had already met in the hours following the attack.

The head of MI5, the domestic intelligence agency, was expected to attend Thursday's meeting along with the head of Scotland Yard, interior minister Theresa May and London mayor Boris Johnson.

Chilling amateur footage of one of the suspects shows him with bloody hands and still holding a blood-stained knife and meat-cleaver, telling a member of the public: "You people will never be safe."

"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you," adds the man, who is black and speaks in a London accent.

He went on to make various political statements in the video, including a demand for Cameron to "bring our troops back".

Eyewitnesses described how after the killing, at around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the men stayed at the scene asking passers-by to photograph and film them.

"I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our lands our women have to see the same," said the suspect, who was wearing a hooded jacket and a black woolly hat.

"We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

Media reports citing witnesses said the men first ran over their victim in a car before finishing him off with the knives.

Several eyewitnesses said he had been decapitated.

Rapper Boya Dee, who witnessed the incident, wrote on his Twitter account: "Ohhhhh myyyy God!!!! I just see a man with his head chopped off right in front of my eyes!"

Reports said the victim was wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo of the British military charity Help for Heroes.

Meanwhile a female scout leader has shot to fame after she confronted the assailants shortly after the attack, telling them: "It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose."

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, told the Daily Telegraph that when she asked one of the suspects why they had carried out the attack, he told her: "We want to start a war in London tonight."

She told the newspaper: "He was not high, he was not on drugs, he was not an alcoholic or drunk, he was just distressed, upset.

"He was in full control of his decisions and ready to everything he wanted to do."

Late Wednesday around 250 members of the anti-Islamist English Defence League were involved in minor scuffles with police at Woolwich Arsenal train station, near the scene of the attack.

Published: 23 May 2013

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British Prime Minister David Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed joint options for ending the crisis in Syria amid a new diplomatic push to resolve the two-year conflict.

Cameron's rare call on Putin at his summer vacation residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi came three days after top US and Russian diplomats agreed to make a joint effort in search of a solution.

The West and Russia have been repeatedly at odds over the Syria conflict, with the United States and Europe accusing Moscow of seeking to prop up President Bashar al-Assad and supplying it with military hardware.

Amid signs of growing international cooperation on ending the conflict, Putin said the two leaders discussed possible options and joint measures for finding peace. However there was no sign of an immediate breakthrough.

"At the initiative of the prime minister, we spoke about the possible options for a positive development of the situation and about practical steps in this regards," Putin said after the talks in comments carried by Russian news agencies.

"We have a joint interest in a swift halt to the violence and the creation of the process for a peaceful solution that keeps Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty," said Putin.

Cameron for his part said Russia, Britain and the United States should facilitate the creation of a transitional government and expressed support for a new push by Moscow and Washington to try to end the bloodshed in Syria.

He said it was "no secret" that Russia and Britain had different positions on the Syria conflict but said they shared an ultimate aim of halting the conflict, allowing the Syrian people to elect a government and preventing a growth in extremism.

Cameron flew to Putin's palm-dotted residence before the British premier's planned meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday.

The meeting also allowed Russia and Britain to coordinate positions ahead of the next Group of Eight summit which Cameron is hosting at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland on June 17-18.

The war in Syria has cost an estimated 70,000 lives and displaced millions of people, including hundreds of thousands who have fled to neighbouring countries.

The talks with Putin came amid concerns that Russia may be preparing to sell Syria sophisticated surface-to-air missiles which will significantly strengthen its defences and complicate any foreign intervention.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that any such sale would be "potentially destabilising" for the region.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on a visit to Warsaw on Friday, refused to rule out supplies of weapons to Syria according to existing contracts.

Published: 10 May 2013

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