A U.S. military court has convicted an Army sergeant of murdering two of his comrades and wounding 14 others in a grenade and rifle attack two years ago in Kuwait.
A military jury in Fort Bragg, North Carolina Thursday found Sergeant Hasan Akbar, a member of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, guilty of ambushing the troops as they slept in tents at the start of the Iraq war.
Sergeant Akbar faces a possible death sentence. If condemned to death, he would become the first soldier to be executed in more than 40 years.
His military lawyers claimed that constant ridicule over his being a black Muslim caused him to snap, triggering the attack.
The trial's sentencing phase is scheduled to begin Monday.
Some information for this story provided by AP and Reuters.
