NEW YORK: An Afghanistan-born man was convicted on Monday of planting two pressure-cooker bombs in the Chelsea neighbourhood in New York last year, injuring 30 people with a rain of shrapnel when it detonated.

The verdict in Manhattan Court came after a two-week trial of 29-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a resident of New Jersey.

The charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place, carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.

Prosecutors said Rahimi considered himself “a soldier in a holy war against Americans” and was inspired by the militant Islamic State group and Al Qaeda to carry out the late summer attacks.

He was found guilty of all the charges against him. The defence said it would appeal.

Dozens of videos tracked Rahimi’s movements as he dragged the bombs in suitcases through Manhattan streets.

As a bomb squad investigator testified, prosecutors showed jurors a mangled, waist-high trash bin that was sent flying 37 metres across a busy street by the bomb.

The government called it a miracle that nobody was killed by the explosive, which scattered ball bearings meant to serve as shrapnel.

The prosecutor said Rahimi’s written words provided a confession as he took responsibility for the bombings in a “claim of credit” for attacks that left him feeling proud.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017