A man with links to the Toronto 18 terrorist group has been found guilty by a U.S. judge of providing material support to terrorism in the U.S. and abroad.

Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, faces up to 15 years in prison.  District Court Judge Bill Duffey in Atlanta, Ga. delayed sentencing until after a co-defendant's trial slated to begin in August.

Prosecutors had founded their case against Ahmed and co-defendant Ehsanhul Islam Sadequee on videos the two had shot of Washington landmarks such as the Pentagon and the Capitol.

They claim Ahmed attempted to connect with militants in Canada and Pakistan.

The two journeyed to Toronto in March 2005 and met with at least three other targets of an FBI investigation. Ahmed travelled to Pakistan on a one-way ticket in July 2005 hoping to hook up with Lashkar-e-Tayyba, an Islamist militant group that mainly focuses on the disputed territory of Kashmir. After a month, he returned to Atlanta.

"The ultimate goal was to get into a training camp," assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney said during the four-day trial, "and pursue violent jihad."

Some of the targets in the U.S. ranged from military bases and oil refineries to disrupting the Global Positioning System of satellites that aids navigation.

Defence attorney Jack Martin argued the prosecution had no evidence. He argued his client was immature person whose idea of paramilitary training was playing paintball in the woods.

The FBI arrested the two in March 2006. Ahmed had been a mechanical engineering student at Georgia Tech University but had been born in Pakistan. Sadequee was of Bangladeshi descent but had been born in Virginia.

The arrests in the Toronto 18 case came in June 2006.

Outside court, Syed Riaz Ahmed, the convicted man's father, said he wasn't surprised by the judge's verdict.

"He's not guilty in the eyes of Allah, just in the U.S. law. He didn't do anything," the father said, characterizing the prosecution as overblown. "You think something and you are guilty of something."

One person has been convicted and sentenced so far in the Toronto 18 case. That person, now 21, got a 30-month prison sentence that essentially amounted to time served.

Another Toronto 18 defendant pleaded guilty in May.

Nine others still face trial, but three youths and four adults had charges against them either stayed or withdrawn.

With files from The Associated Press