Alleged Fort Dix terrorists indicted

CAMDEN, N.J., June 5 (UPI) -- Five suspected terrorists were formally charged Tuesday in New Jersey in an indictment alleging they were inspired by al-Qaida.

The group allegedly planned an attack on Fort Dix in an effort to kill U.S. soldiers training to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan or had returned from the fight. A sixth man is charged with aiding and abetting the group by supplying them with firearms.

"The defendants ... were inspired by, among others, al-Qaida, a foreign terrorist organization which sponsored, managed and financed terrorist attacks against the United States and its citizens, including the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and attacks on United States military forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, to form a conspiracy to kill United States military personnel stationed in New Jersey and elsewhere," the indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Camden said.

Rocco Cipparone, who represents Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer of Cherry Hill, N.J., the alleged ringleader, accused federal prosecutors of using inflammatory language, Fox 29 in Philadelphia reported. He said that would make it difficult to get an impartial jury.