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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: January 9, 2005 |
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Jordan on Sunday charged 16 Islamic militants, including one at large, with plotting a spree of terrorist attacks, including strikes against the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Amman.
The cell members were detained between August and September but details about their arrests and the allegations against them surfaced only after they were charged at the office of Jordan's military prosecutor.
A court official said the men, led by 50-year-old Jordanian Abed al-Tahawi, were charged with conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks and illegal possession of automatic weapons.
A military prosecutor accused the defendants of plotting attacks against the U.S. and Israeli embassies in Amman and a hotel housing Israeli tourists in Irbid, 55 miles (88 kilometers) north of the capital.
They are also alleged to have planned attacks on the home of the director of the Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts and Americans performing in the July event 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Amman, and threatened a journalist and a security official.
No details were available on how the men were arrested nor how their plots were foiled.
A charge sheet alleged al-Tahawi had recruited his accomplices while preaching in mosques in Irbid before instructing them to carry out the planned attacks.
It is alleged al-Qurani also went to neighboring Iraq to fight U.S.-led coalition forces, but a militant leader in the volatile city of Fallujah had told him to return to Jordan and attack U.S. interests here.
Five Jordanians of Palestinian origin are among the defendants in custody. At least one of the 16 is at large. No trial date has been set.
Last week, military prosecutors charged two Jordanians with a foiled plot to kill four American archaeologists working in the town of Hartha, near Irbid.
They also charged another four men with plotting to attack security officials, foreign and Israeli tourists and illegal possession of an automatic weapon.
Jordan, a key U.S. ally and peace partner to Israel, has been targeted by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida and other terrorists. Twenty-two Islamic militants, including al-Zarqawi, were convicted of plotting to attack U.S. and Israeli tourists during the kingdom's millennium celebrations.
Al-Zarqawi is believed to be directing anti-U.S. attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, and his group has beheaded several hostages. He has been sentenced to death for the 2002 killing of U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley in Jordan.
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