© Anna Gowthorpe/PAAzhar Ahmed, the man accused of posting an offensive Facebook message about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.
Azhar Ahmed, 20, admitted what he wrote was ''unacceptable'' in the status update on the social networking site after reading about the deaths of the soldiers in March has told a court
The six soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in the deadliest single attack on British forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
Today Huddersfield Magistrates Court heard Ahmed posted his message two days after the deaths.
It said: ''People gassin about the deaths of Soldiers! What about the innocent familys who have been brutally killed [all sic].
''The women who have been raped. The children who have been sliced up!
''Your enemy's were the Taliban not innocent harmful [sic] familys [sic]."
''All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL! THE LOWLIFE F****N SCUM!
''gotta problem. go cry at your soldiers grave and wish him hell because thats where he is going.''
Ahmed told the court he immediately started to receive critical comments on his page and realised the second half of his post was ''unacceptable''.
But he denied it was ''grossly offensive'', telling a district judge he thought it would have been ''upsetting'' and caused ''distress''.
Ahmed, of Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, told the court he was only trying to make the point that many other deaths in Afghanistan were being ignored.
He said he had no idea it would cause so much upset. Ahmed said: "I didn't intend to insult them at the time.
"When I read back on it, that's when I realised I had actually insulted and upset a lot of people."
He said he replied with apologies to many people who commented on his page and when some told him they had lost relatives in Afghanistan he realised how serious it was.
"That's when I realised it was unacceptable for them to see something so upsetting and distressing, to write something like that," he added.
Earlier Niall Carlin, prosecuting, said the parents of one of the six soldiers who died in the incident saw the posting, which was copied around the internet.
Mr Carlin also read the statement of one woman, who went to the same school as Ahmed, who had lost two friends on duty in Afghanistan and was extremely distressed by what he wrote.
The prosecutor also said the biscuit firm Fox's was inundated with complaints after Ahmed said he worked there on his Facebook profile.
Mr Carlin said the firm was so concerned about complaints and possible damage to their brand, it was discussed at the top level of it's parent company.
He also explained to the court how another man, with the same surname as Ahmed, was plagued with offensive calls and people waiting outside his home after his address was wrongly linked to the defendant's posting on the internet.
The court heard the man had to be given special police protection. Ahmed, who is on conditional bail, denies sending a message which was grossly offensive.
The trial continues.
Comment: This is an example of racial profiling and discrimination in the UK as part of the 'war on terror'.