Jordan issues death sentence on al-Zarqawi

JORDAN’S military court yesterday sentenced al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and two other militants to death for a failed suicide bombing on the Jordanian-Iraqi border a year ago.

Al-Zarqawi, believed to be in Iraq, and another of the defendants were sentenced in absentia.

It is the second death sentence issued against the Jordanian-born terrorist by his homeland's military court. The first was over the slaying of US aid worker Laurence Foley, who was gunned down outside his Amman home in October 2002.

The court said yesterday it found them and Saudi militant Fahd Noman Suwelim al-Feheiqi the only defendant in police custody guilty of the planned terror attack.