American who plotted against US troops convicted

Kaziu planned to target American troops stationed in Kosovo before going on to Pakistan to join al Qaeda.

NEW YORK: A New York man who plotted violent jihad against US forces in the Middle East and the Balkans was convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit murder and other charges, federal prosecutors here said.

Betim Kaziu was tried in a federal court trial in Brooklyn, where the charges against him included plotting to commit murder overseas and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the US justice department said in a statement.

Kaziu, who according to US media reports is the son of Muslim immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, then traveled to Kosovo, where he planned to target American troops stationed there before going on to Pakistan to join al Qaeda.

He was also convicted of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism and conspiring to use a machine gun to commit those crimes.

Prosecutors said that Kaziu, 23, traveled from New York to Cairo in February 2009 to wage jihad against US troops in the Middle East and the Balkans.

In Egypt, the defendant attempted to acquire automatic weapons and to travel to Somalia to join the radical Somali al Shebab network, US authorities said.

He was arrested by police in Kosovo in August 2009 and transferred into the custody of US authorities to face terror charges.

According to court testimony, the defendant, who grew up in the United States, had been radicalized in part by propaganda videos produced by al Qaeda and al Shebab.

He also was inspired by internet speeches by terror mastermind Anwar al Awlaki, an American-born radical Muslim cleric and leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, according to testimony during his trial.

A November 4 sentencing date has been set for Kaziu, who faces a possible life sentence.