Jordan convicts militants of plotting to kill Americans

A Jordanian military court today convicted eight militants of plotting to kill US troops in Iraq and Americans and Israelis in Jordan.

The Amman court handed down sentences of between two and 10 years’ imprisonment.

The alleged mastermind of the plot, Ahmad Shabaneh, 37, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, received a 10-year-sentence. Two other defendants, who were convicted in absentia as they are at large, received the same.

The remaining five defendants received prison terms from two years to seven-and-a-half years.

The court found that in 2003 Shabaneh had formed a militant group called “Al-Taa’efa al-Mansourah,” or the Victorious Sect, which plotted to send militants to Iraq to attack US forces.

It also planned to attack US soldiers engaged in training Iraqi police recruits at a desert camp in Jordan.

The prosecution did not say if the group was linked to al-Qaida, but the indictment said Shabaneh was influenced by the ideology of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The indictment said Shabaneh had distributed leaflets and computer discs bearing quotations of al-Zarqawi at mosques in Jordan.