One of the men accused of murdering Fusilier Lee Rigby has told a jury he does not regret what happened to the soldier.

Michael Adebolajo, aged 28, gave evidence at the Old Bailey where he and Michael Adebowale, aged 22, are charged with murdering Drummer Rigby by running him down with a car and then killing him with a meat cleaver and knives near Woolwich Barracks in London on May 22.

Fusilier Rigby’s widow Rebecca left the courtroom in tears.

Asked who Al Qaida were by his counsel, David Gottlieb, Adebolajo replied: “Al Qaida, I consider to be Mujahideen. I love them, they’re my brothers. I have never met them. I consider them my brothers in Islam.”

He continued: “I will never regret obeying the command of Allah. That is all I can say. I’m a mujahid, I’m a soldier, I’m doing what Allah commands me to do. I can’t do anything else.”

But when he was asked how he feels towards the soldier’s family, he told the court: “I have no animosity or bad feelings towards them. Every soldier has a family, has a family who loves him just like me,” he said.

The court heard that Adebolajo, who grew up in Romford, is married and has six children, including a seven-year-old boy and a baby born shortly before the incident.

During a police interview played to the court, Adebolajo, told counter-terrorism detectives that the alleged murder was not “a personal vendetta”. He said: “We sat in wait and it just so happened that he was the soldier that was spotted first.”

The trial continues.