The FBI arrested six men today on charges they conspired to wage war on the United States and provide support to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network.

John Walker Lindh and other al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners told US interrogators that the September 11 hijackings were supposed to be the first of three increasingly severe attacks against Americans. Their claims have not been corroborated, government officials said.

John Walker Lindh, the young convert to Islam who left California to fight alongside the Taliban, has pleaded guilty to two charges in a surprise deal that spares him life in prison and ensures his co-operation with US terrorism investigators.

JOHN WALKER LINDH, the American Taliban captured in Afghanistan, escaped life imprisonment yesterday after his lawyers reached a surprise deal with prosecutors.

Elite US special forces posed for photos with American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh, handcuffed and with an obscenity written across his blindfold, Pentagon officials said.

John Walker Lindh's trial will likely start in late August, raising the odds the former Taliban soldier will be in court on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The US citizen arrested while allegedly fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to kill fellow countrymen and aiding Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

A lawyer for an Australian captured last year in Afghanistan today welcomed a US decision to apply the Geneva Convention to Taliban fighters being held at a naval base in Cuba.

American Taliban suspect John Walker Lindh has been ordered to be held in custody pending trial on charges of conspiring to kill countrymen.

A grand jury in the United States has indicted an American captured in Afghanistan on 10 charges, including conspiring to kill US citizens and conspiring to support terrorism.

John Walker Lindh, the Taliban’s American warrior, made his first appearance in US federal court today, answering politely ‘‘Yes I do, thank you’’ when asked if he understood the charges that he conspired to kill his fellow Americans in Afghanistan.

The young Muslim convert accused of joining al-Qaida soldiers in Afghanistan has returned to the US under FBI custody.

At first, he couldn’t tell the man was any different from the other wounded Taliban and al-Qaida fighters at the makeshift hospital: bleeding, in pain, covered in filth and with matted hair.

The US government will not seek the death penalty for the alleged American Taliban John Walker Lindh.

US Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh has admitted serving with a group of Arab fighters financed by Osama bin Laden.