UK cops apologize for Muslim phrase in terror exercise

British police apologize on Tuesday after officers shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar!” during a terror training exercise in a shopping center in northern England.

In video footage of the exercise broadcast on British television, a masked man dressed in black could be seen running into the complex in Manchester shouting the words before setting off a bomb and falling to the floor.

“On reflection, we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam,” says Garry Shewan, a senior officer at Greater Manchester Police.

In a statement, Shewan said the scenario had been based on “a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh-style organization” — Daesh being an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group — but added: “We recognize and apologize for the offense that this has caused.”

— AFP