World

A man born in Saudi Arabia has been convicted in a U.S. federal court on charges he participated in a 2003 attack in Afghanistan that killed two U.S. servicemen.

A jury in Brooklyn, New York, deliberated for just two hours on March 16 before reaching the guilty verdict against admitted Al-Qaeda fighter Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Harun.

Harun, who was not in court and watched the trial from his jail cell, was extradited from Italy in October 2012.

He has insisted he is a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than a criminal court.

Harun, who holds Niger citizenship, traveled to Afghanistan to join Al-Qaeda weeks before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, prosecutors said.

They said he took part in an assault on U.S. troops in 2003 that killed Army Private 1st Class Jerod Dennis, 19, and Air Force Airman 1st Class Raymond Losano, 24.

A Koran recovered at the site had Harun's fingerprints, prosecutors said.

He also was convicted of later plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP

A U.S. senator is vowing to revive a lapsed special-visa program for Afghan interpreters and others who served U.S. forces in the country, often risking their lives.

The U.S. State Department said on March 9 that it is running out of special-visa slots and stopped scheduling interviews on March 1.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said allowing the program to lapse sends a message to allies in Afghanistan that they have been "abandoned." She pledged to immediately introduce legislation to provide more visas.

"It's both a moral and practical imperative that Congress right this wrong immediately," Shaheen said.

She estimated that more than 10,000 applicants are still waiting for visas.

Shaheen and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain led an unsuccessful effort last year to pass legislation extending the special visas to another 4,000 Afghans who assisted U.S. forces.

The National Defense Authorization Act passed late last year instead added 1,500 visas while making it more difficult to qualify.

The Afghan visa announcement came within days of President Donald Trump issuing a new executive order to temporarily ban refugees and some travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries. But Afghanistan was not one of the six.

With reporting by Reuters