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Thousands of lone wolf Islamic extremists could launch similar attacks to the Woolwich bloodbath, a senior police officer warned yesterday.

Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick said the threat cannot be eradicated while young men in the UK become radicalised via the internet.

Ms Dick, who oversaw the police probe into Lee Rigby’s murder, said: “We were seeing more instances of people who did not appear to need command and control or permission, did not seem to be in contact with an organised network, in contact with others.

“This quite obviously poses some different and difficult challenges for intelligence agencies and the police. There are people who are becoming radicalised mainly through their interaction with the internet.

“We are dealing overall with thousands of people in the UK and we have a very good record of preventing attacks, stopping major plots every year since 2004. Sadly our ability to reduce the risks to zero are not there.”

MI5 chief Andrew Parker warned in August that there are thousands of individuals in the UK who could launch an attack.

He said: “There are several thousand Islamist extremists here who see the British public as a legitimate target.”

And it can now be revealed that Adebolajo vowed to “behead” anyone he considered has insulted Islam, six years before he murdered Lee.

The Muslim convert became a brainwashed disciple of hate preachers who handpicked him to carry out jihad.

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Born into a hard-working Christian family, Adebolajo grew into a student at Greenwich University, dressing in white robes and calling himself Mujahid, or “a fighter for Islam”.

Then 18, he started attending meetings of now-banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun, when anger was high over the Iraq war.

Founder Omar Bakri Mohammed boasted how he tutored Adebolajo describing him as a, “shy man who would ask questions about when violence was justified”.

In 2005 British spies identified Adebolajo as a “person of interest”.

A year later, Adebolajo was arrested and jailed for 51 days following a scuffle with police at the Old Bailey where, chillingly, witnesses heard him shouting for the right to, “behead those who insult Islam”.

After being thrown off his university course, he spent time at mosques across London listening to radical rants against the West.

In 2007, bearded Adebolajo was seen protesting at Paddington Green police station holding a placard on a “Crusade Against Muslims”. He was filmed standing beside renowned radical preacher Anjem Choudary.

The same year, along with murder accomplice Michael Adebowale, he met Usman Ali, another fanatic on the terror watch list and the Woolwich killers became familiar faces at volatile protests all over London.

In 2009, Adebolajo was seen in a mob attacking members of the English Defence League during a march on Harrow Mosque. At the same time, Adebolajo started to attend further sermons by cleric Abdul Qadir Mumin, who attracted dozens of young Britons to travel to Somalia around 2010.

That was the year Adebolajo was arrested trying to join al-Shabaab terrorists.

Like Adebolajo, Michael Adebowale changed from troubled schoolboy to hate-filled thug. After an early “career” as a violent heroin dealer, he converted to Islam in a young offenders’ unit. On release he wore Islamic robes, called himself Ismael and gave out extremist literature.

He, too, followed hate preacher Choudary and joined a march on the US embassy in September 2012 chanting “burn burn USA” .

White Widow is at centre of radicals web

Samantha Lewthwaite is at the centre of a network of extremists including Adebolajo and Adebowale.

Adebolajo met Jermaine Grant – a pal of Westgate Mall massacre suspect Lewthwaite – trying to get in to Somalia via Kenya to join a terror camp in 2010.

Grant, who now faces terror charges in Mombasa, Kenya, was with Swaleh Abdulmajid, the son-in-law of radical Sheikh Aboud Rogo, who had links to fanatic Abdul Qadir Mumin.

Mumin fled Britain just weeks after he arranged travel for Adebolajo to Kenya. Rogo took Lewthwaite under his wing in Kenya when she was planning bombings in 2011 in Mombasa for terror gang al-Shabaab. Its leader is now Ahmed Imam Ali, whom Adebolajo stayed with when he got to Kenya in 2010.

Adebolajo associated with hate preacher Anjem Choudary and was a disciple of clerics Usman Ali and Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Adebowale was seen at Ali’s sermons. Another radical, Abdullah el-Faisal, is said to have radicalised Lewthwaite after husband Germaine Lindsay killed himself in the 7/7 attacks.