A British man has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 38 years, after he was found guilty of bomb-making in Iraq that killed a US soldier.

Anis Abid Sardar, 38, was convicted of murdering a US soldier in Iraq with home-made explosives. 34-year-old Sergeant First Class Randy Johnson, of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment was killed after the armored vehicle he was traveling in was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on September 27, 2007.

Sardar had denied all charges against him, and told the court he became involved in the Iraqi insurgency to protect his fellow Sunni Muslims from Shia militias. He said American soldiers had not been his targets.

But Justice Henry Globe dismissed that and said Sardar had “a mindset that made Americans' every bit the enemy as Shia militias.”

Sardar was detained at London’s Heathrow airport and his fingerprints were taken after he made his way back to the UK some two months after Sgt Johnson was killed. Earlier, his fingerprints were found on two bomb devices.

In 2012, police officers who were searching his London home as part of a separate investigation found an Arab language bomb-making manual on a computer disc.

UK and United States have been close allies the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The two countries, under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction allegedly stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, spearheaded the invasion.

Experts believe that the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 resulted in the rise of terrorist groups such as ISIL in the Middle East.

MRA/NN/HRB