Jordan indicts 13 in terror plots

AMMAN, Jordan -- Military prosecutors charged 13 alleged militants Thursday with conspiring to attack American targets in Jordan, including the U.S. Embassy and Jordanian bases where the alleged plotters believed U.S. troops were stationed.

Government officials said four of the suspects -- three Saudis and a Jordanian -- were at large and would be tried in absentia when the case begins in the military State Security Court next month.

The 13-page indictment says the plotters received funds from Saudi Arabia via two of the fugitives, Issa al-Ruweili and Abdul-Aziz al-Tabib, both Saudi.

The conspirators received rockets, grenades and detonators from Iraq via a Jordanian truck driver, who is one of the accused in custody.

Jordanian intelligence uncovered the plot last December after weeks of monitoring the suspects, who apparently do not have a connection to the al-Qaida terror group, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The indictment accuses a state school teacher, Faisal Khalidi, 30, of being the mastermind of the Jordanian side of the plot. Khalidi and his associates allegedly drew up plans to go to Afghanistan to fight American troops pursuing al-Qaida members.

When the plotters realized it was too difficult to enter Afghanistan, the indictment says, they changed plans and decided to attack U.S. targets in Jordan -- the U.S. Embassy in Amman and the military bases in Yajouz, Azraq, Jafr and al-Safawi, desert towns along a 248-mile highway from Amman to the Iraqi border.

At the time they selected these bases in east Jordan -- early 2002 -- the government denied there were any U.S. troops in the country. Only weeks before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March did Jordan say it had allowed several hundred American soldiers to operate an air-defense system to protect the country from possible Iraqi missiles.

The Jordanian among the four fugitives, Mohammed al-Chalabi, is on the police's most-wanted list for allegedly inciting riots that led to the death of six people in the southern town of Maan in November 2002.

All 13 accused face the death penalty if convicted. They are also charged with illegal possession of weapons and explosives.

Jordan, a moderate Arab nation with close ties to the United States and a peace treaty with Israel, has been targeted by terrorists several times in recent years. Twenty-two extremists were convicted of plotting to attack U.S. and Israeli tourists during the kingdom's millennium celebrations.