News Digest

Briton who made bombs to kill U.S. troops in Iraq gets 38 years in jail

A British bomb-maker found guilty of building improvised explosive devices to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq was jailed for life on Friday. Anis Abid Sardar was sentenced to a minimum term of 38 years for his role in a “deadly” bombing campaign which led to one US soldier being murdered. The devices were planted in or around the road west out of Baghdad - and one killed Sergeant First Class Randy Johnson when it hit the armoured vehicle he was travelling in on 27 September 2007. Sardar, 38, a black cab driver from Wembley in northwest London, was caught seven years later when officials at the FBI’s Explosive Device Analytical Centre (TEDAC) found his fingerprints on some of the bombs.

Although Anis Sardar’s fingerprints were found only on two of the bombs, it is beyond doubt that he was part of a joint enterprise to make four such devices, and potentially many others, given their similarity and location.

Sue Hemming, head of Special Crime and Counter Terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service

Following the verdict on Thursday, Sue Hemming, head of Special Crime and Counter Terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Anis Sardar is a highly dangerous man who created bombs so large that not only did they tragically kill Sgt Randy Johnson, but they put other lives in danger and caused significant damage to heavily armoured U.S. military vehicles." Sardar had told jurors he became involved in the insurgency to protect his fellow Sunni Muslims from Shia militias. He claimed the target was not American soldiers, and blamed instead "the likes of Dick Cheney, George Bush and Tony Blair” for their deaths.