Jordan uncovers al Qaeda plot to attack U.S. troops (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan has arrested 17 militants linked to the al Qaeda network in
Iraq and an affiliated Saudi group who were plotting to attack U.S. military personnel in the kingdom, security sources said on Thursday.

They said interrogations of the suspects revealed that six of them had ties to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al Qaeda network in Iraq, while the others belonged to an underground Saudi group known as the Brigades of the Holy Shrines.

"They were planning attacks on foreign officers in the kingdom," said one security source, referring to a plot to attack U.S. military personnel who frequent five-star hotels while on leave from duty in neighboring Iraq.

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