Ohio Men Indicted on Terrorism Charges

(Toledo, Ohio) Three Toledoans have been indicted on charges of planning attacks to try to kill U.S. military personnel and coalition forces in Iraq.

From FoxToledo.com:

Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, and Wassim I. Mazloum are accused of conspiring to kill or maim persons in and out of the United States, including U.S. Forces personnel. The Federal indictment obtained by Fox Toledo News Tuesday morning says the three were also solicting funding for jihad training, including government grants and private sponsorship.

The accused had travelled to the mid East to establish training facilities for terrorist activities, among other charges.

Amawi, El-Hindi, Mazloum
[Update 1330 EST]

The three men were apprehended over the weekend.

From Cleveland.com:

The indictment - unsealed today in Toledo - lays out details of a conspiracy that purportedly began in November of 2004 when Amawi and Mazloum met with a third person to discuss violent jihad training.

According to the indictment, the men later trained with weapons at a Toledo firing range, downloaded videos on how to put together suicide bomb vests and talked about shipping chemical explosives for bombs to the Middle East.

In addition, the indictment says some of the men were learning how to make Improvised Explosive Devices - IEDs - out of common household items and at least one hoped to fund their training and attacks by opening a non-profit foundation.

In the end, Amawi and another unidentified person from the Toledo area went to Jordan last year and tried to enter Iraq to join the insurgents in their fight against U.S. and allied forces, but they failed, the indictment said. It's unclear what stopped them.

In a possibly related action, federal agents on Sunday also raided the offices of a non-profit Muslin charity called Kindhearts for allegedly providing support to Hamas. It's presently not clear whether the arrests of Amawi, El-Hindi, and Mazloum are linked to Kindhearts.


[Update 03/06/08]

Toledo terrorism trial of the three begins.