British bomb maker guilty of killing U.S. soldier in Baghdad bomb

LONDON, May 21 (UPI) -- Anis Sardar, a British bomb-making cab driver, has been found guilty of murdering a U.S. solider in a 2007 roadside bombing near Baghdad, Iraq.

Sardar, 38, from Wembley, London, was accused of being part of an insurgency campaign that planted four bombs in or around a road west out of Baghdad aimed to kill American military personnel.

He was caught seven years after the explosion by FBI officials who found and matched his fingerprints to those found on adhesive tape applied on two bombs.

Sardar initially denied involvement but recently admitted the fingerprints were his. He was found guilty on Wednesday of murder and conspiracy to murder by a jury of seven women and five men in London's Woolwich Crown Court. He was tried in London for a crime committed in Iraq, an apparent first in the United Kingdom.

Sgt. First Class Randy Johnson, 34, of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, was killed when the armored vehicle he was traveling in was struck by an improvised explosive device, which injured several others.

"Do not let me die here," Johnson said before he died, U.S. soldier Elroy Brooks told the court, who was in the vehicle before the explosion.

Brooks was thrown about 50 feet away by the explosion. After Brooks regained consciousness, he attempted to help Johnson.

"There was only half of him left," Brooks told the court.

"Make me comfortable" were Johnson's last words, U.S. Staff Sgt. Joshua Lord told the court. Johnson was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Sue Hemming, head of counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, described Sardar as a "highly dangerous man" who worked with "murderous intent." Sardar will be sentenced on Friday.