Hair removal ad mistakenly uses image of '9/11 mastermind'

A Turkish hair removal company has unwittingly used an infamous photo of one of the alleged 9/11 terror attack masterminds in their latest ad.

The cosmetics company used a March 2003 image of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad after his capture in Pakistan alongside some of its Epila products.

The ad reads in Turkish: "The hair will not go away because you keep waiting!"

Sheikh Mohammed is currently in custody at Guantanamo Bay military prison awaiting prosecution.

A spokesman for the company said they had no idea he was a terrorist, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

"This image is in popular use in Turkish memes on the Internet," Mehmet Can Yildiz said.

"The guy is quite hairy, so we thought his body was a good fit for our ad."

Mr Yildiz said the company did not want to imply anything political and did not intend for the story to go viral.

"I repeat: we featured him for his hair, not terrorism," Mr Yildiz was quoted as saying.