TOLEDO, Ohio, June 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. government is claiming a major legal victory over "homegrown" terrorists with the convictions of three Ohio men for planning to kill U.S. troops.
Federal law enforcement agents said the verdict, reached Friday by a jury in Toledo, Ohio, against three U.S. citizens of Middle Eastern descent, sends a message that such terrorists will be rooted out, The Toledo Blade reported.
"This case demonstrates the stark reality of homegrown terrorism," C. Frank Figliuzzi, special agent in charge of the Cleveland FBI office, told the Blade. "If a plot like this can be developed in Toledo, it can happen anywhere."
The convicted men were Mohammad Amawi, 28, a U.S. native with Jordanian citizenship; Marwan El-Hindi, 45, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan; and Wassim Mazloum, 27, a Lebanese immigrant. They were found guilty of conspiring to plan attacks to kill or injure U.S. troops in Iraq and other countries.
The case involved a former U.S. Army soldier who infiltrated the men's group as a supposed Islamic convert and secretly recorded their conversations. The trio's defense attorneys, however, say they were entrapped by an overzealous informant who made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the government.
