Story highlights Cleric told a judge in 1996 his case was part of "the American war against Islam"

He was also convicted in plot to assassinate then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

(CNN) Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian-born cleric serving a life sentence for plotting the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center and other terror attacks in New York, has died, a prison spokesman said Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman died Saturday morning from natural causes at age 78, said Greg Norton, spokesman with the federal correctional complex in Butner, North Carolina. He had battled diabetes and coronary heart disease, Norton said.

The February 1993 attack on the Manhattan landmark left six people dead and injured more than 1,000 others. Abdel-Rahman was linked to the attack after other suspects were found to have frequented the New Jersey mosque where he preached.

Rahman denied involvement in the earlier attack in which a bomb exploded in a parking garage under 2 World Trade Center.

Read More