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'My aim was to kill entire government': Breivik

AFP
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'My aim was to kill entire government': Breivik
Photo: Morten Holm/Scanpix

Anders Behring Breivik told a court on Thursday he meant to kill the entire Norwegian government, including the prime minister, in his bomb attack in the centre of Olso last July.

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"The aim of the attack on the government buildings ... was to kill the entire Norwegian government, including the PM ... and everyone in the building," Breivik said on the fourth day of his trial.

On July 22nd, the right-wing extremist had parked a van filled with 950 kilos of explosives at the foot of the 17-floor tower that houses the offices of the Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was not present at the time.

Eight people were killed in the attack which he carried out shortly before he embarked on a shooting spree on a nearby island.

"There is not a political target in Norway that is more attractive" than the government buildings, Breivik said, pointing out that it was relatively isolated and there was therefore little chance of killing many "innocent civilians."

When pressed on whom he regarded as legitimate targets for such an attack, Breivik said any "political activists," which he defined as "journalists, academics and politicians who actively work for multiculturalism."

He assured prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh she was not on his list of "traitors" and was considered an innocent civilian.

On July 22nd, Breivik had listened to the radio as he sped away from the bomb site and was disappointed by the first reports that he had not brought down the building and only one person had died.

On Thursday, he told the court he had decided in advance he would consider the bombing a "fiasco" if he didn't kill more than 12 people, and that this was what led him to decide to complete his plan and head to Utøya island.

He said earlier on Thursday he had also aimed to kill all of the 569 people on the island where he massacred 69 people, and had wanted to behead former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.

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