Alleged accomplices of Bin Laden indicted in Jordan

AMMAN -- A Jordanian court has indicted 28 Arabs, allegedly linked to Saudi billionaire bomber, Osama bin Laden, on conspiracy and terrorism charges.

Jordanian authorities said the suspects planned bombing attacks on U.S. and Israeli tourists celebrating the New Year at Jordan's Mount Nebo.

Police investigators discovered radio-controlled detonators, explosives, ammunition, raw material for bomb-making and nerve gas hidden at a farm outside Amman earlier this year. According to the indictment, the suspects began collecting the materials in 1996 from various Arab capitals, including Damascus and Baghdad.

The 28 men -- including 13 Jordanians, one Iraqi and an Algerian, in custody since December and another 13 others, including Jordanians, Palestinians and a Yemeni still at large -- were indicted Tuesday in Amman.

Many of the suspects allegedly received military training in camps in Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

Bin Laden is sought by the United States for the bombing of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998.

Jordanian Attorney General Maamoun Khassawneh said that the 13 suspects still free might be hiding in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Britain, Lebanon and Syria, Khassawneh.