8 charged with terror attacks, recruitment for Hizbollah

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) prosecutors on Monday charged eight suspects, including a Syrian fugitive, with plotting to attack US soldiers and the Israeli embassy in the capital, and recruiting people to join Hizbollah.

"SSC prosecutors accused the eight men with plotting to carry out terrorist acts, including attacks against US soldiers in 2006 and the Israeli embassy in Amman," a court official told Agence France-Presse.

"The suspects, seven Jordanians and a Syrian fugitive, also recruited people to join [Lebanon's Shiite group] Hizbollah," he said, adding that they were arrested in May last year.

The official gave no further details, but said the suspects face life imprisonment if convicted, according to AFP.

Jordan is home to around 600,000 Syrian refugees.

Earlier this year, the SSC handed down prison sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years to 11 defendants in the so-called 9/11 terror plot for their involvement in a series of planned Al Qaeda attacks against Western diplomatic missions and shopping centres in Amman in October 2012.

In its decision, the court found all 11 defendants, who range between the ages of 19 and 25, guilty of “intent to carry out terrorist acts, and illegal possession of explosives and firearms”.