Jordan jails six for plot to attack Americans

AMMAN, Oct 18 (Reuters) Jordan sentenced six Islamists today to between two and ten years in jail for plotting to kill US troops in Iraq and Americans and Israelis in Jordan.

A state security court in Amman also sentenced another two suspected accomplices to ten year jail terms each in absentia on charges of belonging to a Sunni militant group called ''Al Taaefa al-Mansourah'' (the Victorious sect).

The court found the Jordanian militants guilty of ''conspiring to carry out terrorist acts and plotting to perform illegal actions that could have jeopardised the kingdom's ties with foreign countries.'' The alleged mastermind of the plot, Ahmad Shabanah, 37, a former mosque preacher, was sentenced ten years in jail with hard labour for his role in recruiting Muslim youths to fight alongside Iraqi and Arab insurgents in Iraq.

The bearded militant remained defiant. Before the hearing began, he led prayers dedicated to Muslim jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan.

''O God give these Mujahdeen in Iraq, Afghanistan ... and everywhere victory,'' Shabanah said during the sermon, held in a courtroom at the top security Jweidah prison.

''O God give us martyrdom ... the shackles on our feet are there because we have sought martyrdom,'' he added.

Prosecutors say Al Taaefa al-Mansourah was set up in 2003 motivated by hostility to the US invasion of Iraq. They began their activities by distributing literature produced by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda on CD's in select mosques in Amman.

They then sought to recruit adherents for military training before joining militants fighting US-led forces in Iraq, prosecutors say.

Only days before their arrest in August last year, they had finalised plans to attack a US funded academy training Iraqi police in Jordan.

The jail sentences were the latest in a series handed down this year against dozens of militants, many of whom were detained or charged last year with plotting attacks on Americans and Westerners.

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

Reuters AB RN1913