U.S. citizen found guilty of conspiring to support al-Qaeda

An American citizen has been found guilty of conspiring to aid the al-Qaeda and to bomb a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

31-year-old Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh could face life in prison after a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted him on nine counts.

Al Farekh was born in Houston and grew up in Dubai. He attended the University of Manitoba in Canada between 2005 and 2007, and there became friends with co-conspirators, and later fellow al-Qaeda members, Ferid Imam and Maiwand Yar.

"Al Farekh left to train in Pakistan after he watched videos encouraging violent jihad and online lectures by the now-deceased al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who 'inspired numerous terrorist plots against Western targets'," the CNN quoted the court documents.

The counts include a conspiracy to murder American nationals and to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Earlier, the federal prosecutors had claimed that Al Farekh was a member of the terror organisation from 2007 to 2014.

The court papers also detailed his alleged participation in the January 2009 attack on a U.S. military installation in Khost, Afghanistan. The attack involved a truck armed with explosives blowing up at the gate of the base and another prepared to do more harm.

Al Farukh's sentencing is set for January 11.