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Al-Qaeda Fighter Gets Life For Killing US Soldiers In Afghanistan

A Saudi-born al-Qaeda member, convicted last year of killing two US service members in Afghanistan, received a life sentence Friday in a New York courtroom.

But Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Harun, a self-described al-Qaeda "warrior," refused to attend his sentencing, Fox News reported.

"I can't think of a more serious crime," US District Judge Brian M Cogan said as he announced the sentence for Harun in a Brooklyn, N.Y., courtroom where a monitor showing the entrance to Harun's cell rested near his lawyers. Harun also had refused to attend his trial last year.

Fox News reported the judge rejected Harun's claim that he was more a soldier than a terrorist, saying Harun wanted to kill "dozens or maybe hundreds of Americans" and those from other nationalities, as well.

"I'm confident the defendant doesn't differentiate whether they are civilians or soldiers," Cogan said.

A jury last March convicted Harun after prosecutors said he confessed while in Italian custody that he threw a grenade and shot at an American military unit in a 2003 ambush that killed Army Pvt. Jerod Dennis, of Antlers, Okla., and Air Force Airman Ray Losano, of Del Rio, Texas.

While on the run, Harun later masterminded a failed plot to bomb a US Embassy in Nigeria, the government said. He was under the direct supervision of al-Qaeda higher-ups, including some still held at Guantanamo Bay, it said.

Fox News stated, the Saudi-born defendant who claims Niger citizenship had insisted he was a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than a civilian court prosecution.

Cogan said soldiers in wartime don't target embassies.

Harun, 47, was extradited from Italy to the US in 2012.

The judge said Harun told prison officials Friday: "This is not my court. That is not my judge."

Fox News reported that Cogan called Harun "self-absorbed," noting that he was willing to speak to the judge and his lawyers as long as he thought he was going to get his way.

"If this man ever walks the streets again, the first thing he will do is try to kill Americans," Cogan said. "He has one gear. That's to kill Americans."

"If this man ever walks the streets again, the first thing he will do is try to kill Americans."

Al-Qaeda Fighter Gets Life For Killing US Soldiers In Afghanistan

The Saudi born self-proclaimed “warrior” was convicted last year of killing the soldiers in an ambush on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in 2003. 

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A Saudi-born al-Qaeda member, convicted last year of killing two US service members in Afghanistan, received a life sentence Friday in a New York courtroom.

But Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Harun, a self-described al-Qaeda "warrior," refused to attend his sentencing, Fox News reported.

"I can't think of a more serious crime," US District Judge Brian M Cogan said as he announced the sentence for Harun in a Brooklyn, N.Y., courtroom where a monitor showing the entrance to Harun's cell rested near his lawyers. Harun also had refused to attend his trial last year.

Fox News reported the judge rejected Harun's claim that he was more a soldier than a terrorist, saying Harun wanted to kill "dozens or maybe hundreds of Americans" and those from other nationalities, as well.

"I'm confident the defendant doesn't differentiate whether they are civilians or soldiers," Cogan said.

A jury last March convicted Harun after prosecutors said he confessed while in Italian custody that he threw a grenade and shot at an American military unit in a 2003 ambush that killed Army Pvt. Jerod Dennis, of Antlers, Okla., and Air Force Airman Ray Losano, of Del Rio, Texas.

While on the run, Harun later masterminded a failed plot to bomb a US Embassy in Nigeria, the government said. He was under the direct supervision of al-Qaeda higher-ups, including some still held at Guantanamo Bay, it said.

Fox News stated, the Saudi-born defendant who claims Niger citizenship had insisted he was a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than a civilian court prosecution.

Cogan said soldiers in wartime don't target embassies.

Harun, 47, was extradited from Italy to the US in 2012.

The judge said Harun told prison officials Friday: "This is not my court. That is not my judge."

Fox News reported that Cogan called Harun "self-absorbed," noting that he was willing to speak to the judge and his lawyers as long as he thought he was going to get his way.

"If this man ever walks the streets again, the first thing he will do is try to kill Americans," Cogan said. "He has one gear. That's to kill Americans."

"If this man ever walks the streets again, the first thing he will do is try to kill Americans."

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