Jordan jails eight for plots to attack Westerners

AMMAN, Sep 13 (Reuters) Jordan jailed eight Islamist youths on Wednesday for 10 to 20 years for plotting to attack US citizens who frequent luxury hotels and work in the country, judicial sources said.

A state security court said the eight were found guilty of ''conspiring to carry out terrorist acts and of illegal possession of automatic weapons,'' in two separate security plots foiled last year to attack US citizens in the country.

Along with tourists, they also planned to kill US instructors heading to a US-funded police centre on the outskirts of Amman that trains Iraqi police recruits.

Jordanian authorities uncovered the plot in August last year after arresting one of the suspects and finding cameras used for surveillance during the planning of the attacks.

They also uncovered AK-47 automatic weapons in the homes of some of the detainees.

The court also sentenced in absentia two fugitive Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon who abetted the militants to 15 years of hard labour.

The verdict was the latest in a series of jail sentences passed this year against dozens of Jordanian militants, many of whom were either detained or charged last year for plotting attacks on Americans and other Westerners.

Security officials in Jordan, a staunch US ally, say the rise in militancy was tied to growing anti-American sentiment after the invasion of Iraq.

REUTERS PB RK1835