2 Jordanian Islamists get prison terms

AMMAN, Jordan, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Jordan's state security court Monday sentenced two Muslim extremists to two years in prison with hard labor for planning to kill foreign diplomats.

Military Judge Col. Fawwaz Bakkour said Khaled Abdel Rahman Jibran, 20, and Abdel Hamid Yassin, 31, were convicted of conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks and assassinate U.S., French, Chinese and Turkish diplomats.

The judge initially sentenced the men to five years in prison, then reduced their sentences to two years.

They were arrested in June after authorities uncovered a plot to kill foreign diplomats to protest their governments' stances on Arab and Muslim causes, especially the Palestinians and Iraqis.