Jordan to charge four with plotting Israel attack

Four Jordanian Islamists have been arrested for allegedly planning attacks on Israel in retaliation for the "massacres" it committed during its 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip in January, judicial sources said Wednesday.

More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed and about 4,000 wounded in the Gaza attack.

The four people, who were detained in April, are expected to be charged with the possession of arms without license for illegal uses, the sources said.

The suspects were identified as Sakhr Abu Zaid, Hassan Talaq, Mohammad Abu Ourah and Osama Abu Kabir. The last-named was a Guantanamo prison detainee for several years, they added.

Under the peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994, the Hashemite Kingdom committed itself not to allow attacks on Israel from Jordanian territory.

Also in April, a Jordanian court convicted Wednesday three militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas who were allegedly operating in Jordan.

The three were convicted on a number of charges including monitoring the Israeli embassy in Amman, and military sites on the borders with Israel and Syria for the militant group.

The men, who pleaded not guilty, were sentenced to five years in prison. The military judge initially sentenced the men to 10 years but reduced the sentence to five years. Two other defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The military prosecutor said at the opening of their trial last year that Hamas provided the alleged militants with military training in an unnamed neighboring country.

In March, a 24-year-old Chicago man originally from Jordan was charged Friday with threatening to set off explosives near Jewish schools in the metropolitan area if Israel didn't halt military actions in Gaza.

Mohammed T. Alkaramla was ordered held without bond after his arrest, according to the FBI.

Alkaramla was charged with a felony count of sending an interstate threatening communication. Authorities allege he sent a letter to the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago on December 30 claiming that explosives would be set off around the school unless the violence in Gaza stopped by January 15.