UK: Tube bomber convicted of attempted murder

By Muhammad Mussa

LONDON (AA) - A British court on Friday found an Iraqi teenager guilty of attempted murder for planting a bomb on a crowded London train.

Ahmed Hassan, 18, previously an asylum-seeker in Surrey, was convicted after detonating a homemade bomb in Parsons Green, London last September.

The homemade explosive ripped through the train with glass and shrapnel, piercing nearby passengers. Thirty people were injured in the attack.

Survivors also described in harrowing detail of feeling their bodies overwhelmed by the fire and glass.

Judge Haddon Cave, delivering the verdict at the Old Bailey court, argued that Hassan was convicted based on the evidence against him.

Hassan told the court that he made the bomb because he was “very bored, very depressed, very confused,” but denied that he meant to commit murder, according to the BBC.

Both of Hassan’s parents died when he was 6 and he said he blamed the U.K. due to its taking part in the invasion of Iraq.

Hassan also told the London court that he had been abducted by Daesh and trained for three months on how to kill.

He later rescinded this statement, telling the court he had made up the story in order to gain sympathy and be able to remain in the U.K.

He continues to be remanded in custody and will be sentenced on a date that will be fixed next week.