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An admitted al-Qaida fighter has been convicted in New York of federal charges he was in a firefight in Afghanistan that left two U.S. soldiers dead.

A jury in federal court in Brooklyn deliberated for only about two hours Thursday before reaching the guilty verdict against Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Harun.

Harun was extradited from Italy to the U.S. in 2012. Prosecutors told jurors that while in Italian custody, he confessed that he threw a grenade and shot at an American military unit in 2003.

He also was convicted of later plotting to bomb a U.S. embassy in Nigeria.

The Saudi-born defendant had insisted he is a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than a civilian court prosecution. He refused to attend his trial.