Reduced sentence to U.S. mission assailant

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- A Lebanese court of appeal Thursday reduced the sentences of two men convicted of attempting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in March 2003.

A military tribunal had sentenced Mehdi Haj Hassan to seven years in prison and his accomplice Abdullah Mreish to three years after convicting them of the attempt on the embassy in northern Beirut.

The court of appeal reduced Haj Hassan's sentence to five years and Mreish's sentence to two years.

The men said during their trial that they had acted in protest against U.S. air raids on Iraq in the first weeks of the U.S.-led invasion.