Syrian man sentenced in USA for making bomb parts

A Syrian man accused in 2011 of designing and assembling electronic parts for radio-controlled roadside bombs for attacks on USA military forces in Iraq was convicted on Wednesday in an Arizona federal court, U.S. officials said.

Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah, 41, also known as Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Ahmad, was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, after a jury found him guilty on March 16 on six terrorism-related charges, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

Alahmedalabdaloklah was arrested under an Interpol warrant in Turkey in 2011, under the name Al-Ahmad, and detained there until his extradition in August 2014 to the United States, officials said.

The initial indictment accused Alahmedalabdaloklah of designing and assembling parts for wireless detonators and circuit boards used in roadside bombs planted for attacks on American forces in Iraq.

According to that indictment, he built the wireless systems in a house in Baghdad with components he procured from 2005 to 2010 from an unspecified company based in Arizona.

“Alahmedalabdaloklah sought to harm American soldiers by conspiring with others to construct and supply improvised explosive device (IED) parts for bombs that were used in Iraq. He will now serve the rest of his life in prison,” John C. Demers, Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security, said in a press release.

His convictions are: conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiring to maliciously damage or destroy U.S. property by means of an explosive, aiding and abetting other persons to possess a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence, and conspiracy to possess a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence.