PIO cabbie jailed for killing US soldier

A 38-year-old Indian-origin taxi driver was on Friday sentenced to life for making a roadside bomb that killed a US soldier in Baghdad in 2007, making him the first person to be convicted in a British court for taking part in the Iraqi insurgency.

Anis Abid Sardar from Wembley in north-west London, was sentenced at a London court to life with a minimum term of 38 years for?murdering 34-year-old US sergeant Randy Johnson with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Iraq in 2007. Police were able to arrest Sardar after the FBI’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Centre (<g data-gr-id="20">TEDAC</g>) found his fingerprints on other bombs he had made, which were almost identical to the one that killed Johnson.

Upon sentencing, Judge Justice Globe said he rejected Sardar’s claim that he only made one bomb to protect the Sunni community from Shia militias and instead was involved in a “campaign” against the US.

“I am satisfied so as to be sure that your actions were not solely focused on Shia militias. Your focus was either wholly or partly American. “I am satisfied that at the material time of the offences you had a mindset that made Americans every bit the enemy as Shia militias. Both were in your contemplation at all times,” he said.