An NHS doctor claimed that devices planted outside a London nightclub were not intended to kill but to throw the spotlight on the effect of war on his homeland.

Bilal Abdulla, 29, from Iraq, admitted to Woolwich Crown Court plotting to set two cars on fire to give Britain a “taste of fear”.

He called on Muslims to “escape oppression” and leave Britain, and claimed that the British Government was composed of “democratically elected murderers”.

Mr Abdulla told the court that he had felt the “horror and terror” of the attacks on London's transport system on July 7, 2005, and did not want to injure or kill anyone.

In the witness box for a second day, Mr Abdulla said that he wanted to “bring the Iraq issue to life”.

He said: “I wanted the public to taste what is going on, for them to have a taste of what the decisions of their democratically elected murderers did to my people.

“We intended to bring a device that would give just a taste, the taste of fear. It will look professional, it was dangerous, but in reality it is not. It is a device that will not kill people.”

Mr Abdulla admitted researching and preparing the devices in Houston, near Glasgow, with Kafeel Ahmed, 28, an Indian engineering student.

Mr Abdulla said that the men decided to act as he prepared to leave Britain and return to Jordan after his family fled there from the bitter fighting in Iraq.

He said that Mr Ahmed, who died after he and Mr Abdulla allegedly drove a Jeep into Glasgow airport, was in London on July 7, 2005. “The opinion of all of us was that the killing of innocent people is an atrocity by all the word means. It is not accepted by any religion or any law and that was the opinion of all of us.”

Mr Abdulla is accused of attempting to murder hundreds of people by leaving mobile phone-detonated car bombs outside a West End nightclub.The prosecution alleges that when the devices failed to detonate, Mr Abdulla joined a suicide attack on Glasgow airport the next day.

He is on trial with Mohammed Asha, 28, accused of conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions. They deny the offences.

Mr Abdulla, a junior doctor, said he “did not have a clue” about how the devices would be made and he saw Mr Ahmed as an expert. He told the court: “The plan was Kafeel would use cars that would have petrol canisters at the back of the car, the boot. We will use mobile phones to ignite the petrol and the cars will burn.

“The second part of the plan was we would call the cars from far away. He will be in one of the airports, and myself just about to get on a plane.

“The media will take up these devices and they will make them up, sending them as a big thing.”

Mr Abdulla said that Mr Ahmed was the driving force behind the conspiracy and his co-defendant, Mr Asha, was not told of their plans.

He said the men attempted to select targets for the attacks, including 10 Downing Street, Parliament and Buckingham Palace, during a reconnaissance trip to London in May last year.

“Mostly we were wandering around on tour buses. We were looking at how protected these places were and if it is possible to leave a car outside.

“We decided it was very difficult to leave a car outside prominent government buildings. We decided to leave the car in Central London.”

The doctor said that Mr Ahmed packed the cars with the petrol, gas canisters and electronic initiators and then piled junk from the garage on top to make it look like they were moving home.

When Mr Abdulla reached Edgware Road, in Central London, he parked in a side street and splashed petrol over a duvet. He then followed Mr Ahmed to the West End where the men circled looking for parking spaces, he said.

The doctor said that he eventually stopped the car outside the nightclub Tiger, Tiger and spent several minutes struggling to open the gas canisters in the rear footwell.

Mr Abdulla said he then made off and called the initiator mobile phone about 15 minutes later while travelling to Edgware Road to meet Mr Ahmed.

He said: “I called Kafeel first and I asked him if he is not in the area and he said he was on his way to Edgware Road. He said I can call the car.”

But the device did not work, something that Mr Abdulla realised when he called again and the phone still rang, the jury was told.

Asked how someone would not have been killed or injured if they were standing next to the car, Mr Abdulla said that the fire would have taken hold slowly so they could move away.

The doctor said the two men began to panic as they realised that “clues” to their identities were all over the cars.

The men travelled back to Glasgow via Stoke, where they collected a package of important documents, including their passports, from Mr Asha, the court was told.

Asked if he intended to undertake any further “act”, Mr Abdulla replied: “I did not.”

The case continues.

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