Al-Qaida leader featured in hair removal ad

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- A Turkish company apologized for using an al-Qaida leader's photo to sell hair removal products, saying officials did not recognize the terrorist.

The cosmetics firm, Epila, said officials did not know the photo used in the advertisement for a hair removal product depicted al-Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed shortly after his 2003 capture.

"Waiting won't get rid of that hair!" the ad reads in Turkish.

"We didn't know that he was a terrorist," Epila spokesman Mehmet Can Yildiz told the Hurriyet Daily News.

Mohammed is being held at the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for helping to plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

"This image is in popular use in Turkish memes on the Internet," Yildiz said. "The guy is quite hairy, so we thought his body was a good fit for our ad. We didn't want to imply anything political. We didn't know that it could become an international story. I repeat: We featured him for his hair, not terrorism."