AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – A Jordanian military court convicted three Iraqis Tuesday of smuggling rockets and hand grenades into the kingdom in connection with a plot to attack U.S. and Israeli targets.

Separately, the retrial of 10 militants convicted in another foiled terror plot resumed.

The three Iraqis were charged with crimes including importing and possessing handguns, automatic rifles, hand grenades and rockets. However, the court found insufficient evidence to convict them on a charge of “conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks” in Jordan – an offense punishable by death.

Only two of the three men are in police custody: Ahmed Mohammed Ali Ayed, 26, and Lawrence Hamid Rashid Muhanna, 28. Their 15-year sentences were immediately commuted to 71/2 years with hard labor. They said they would appeal.

The third, Muawiya Muhanna, was sentenced to 15 years in absentia.

The men were arrested Oct. 12, 2003, after police stopped their vehicle – carrying concealed weapons – at a roadblock on a highway just west of Amman.

Authorities charged Lawrence Muhanna – the fugitive’s brother – as the chief conspirator and the one who purchased the weapons from Iraq.

The indictment alleged he had contacted a Jordanian man identified as Abu-Ali who agreed to the plan of carrying out “military operations against Israeli and American interests on Jordanian land.” The indictment did not say what the Iraqis intended to target.

The charge sheet said Muawiya Muhanna dispatched the weapons to Amman from the southern desert city of Maan after smuggling them into the country by truck.

Jordan, a moderate Arab nation with close ties to the United States and a peace treaty with Israel, has been the target of several terrorist plots in recent years.

In the second case, a retrial resumed for 10 militants convicted in connection with an alleged conspiracy to attack Americans and Israelis in Jordan during millennium celebrations.

The 10 men were facing trial for the fourth time after the court of appeal referred the case back to the military court.

During the proceedings, the alleged mastermind of the cell, Khader Abu-Hosher, shouted threats in the courtroom.

“Our brothers in Iraq are watching what is happening to us here in your prisons, and the judgment day is approaching!” the bearded abu-Hosher shouted from the dock. Abu-Hosher was sentenced to death in 2000.

The hearing was adjourned until March 28.

Military judges said in their verdict four years ago that the terror conspiracy was hatched as early as 1996, but the final and decisive planning was in late 1999. Authorities uncovered and foiled the plot in November 1999.

The 10 who appealed were among 28 people charged with 12 crimes, including conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli and American tourists, affiliation with an unspecified banned organization and illegal possession of arms and explosives.

The indictment sheet said the plotters had been collecting explosives since 1996 from various Arab countries, including Syria and Iraq. Many of the suspects had trained in camps in Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan.

In the trial four years ago, 22 men were convicted and the military court handed down sentences ranging from death by hanging to 71/2 years in jail. The 22 men included the 10 being retried.

The six other suspects were acquitted.

AP-ES-03-22-05 1018EST