New Jersey: Five foreign-born Muslims face new charges, including attempted murder, in a case where they stand accused of planning an attack on the US military training base Fort Dix last year.

In a federal indictment handed up yesterday in US District Court, a grand jury said there was evidence that the men, three ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, a Jordanian and a Turk, tried to kill uniformed members of the military.

Greg Reinert, a spokesman for the US Attorney's Office, would not discuss why the new charges were added.

Lawyers for the men said they had expected more charges. "If your client is innocent of the charges, it doesn't matter what he is charged with," said Michael Huff, lawyer for one of the men, Dritan Duka.

The men were arrested last May and charged with conspiracy to attack the military base. They deny the allegations. The government has said the men had practiced firing weapons and arranged to buy guns to carry out an attack on the base.

They did not carry out an actual raid. A trial is now scheduled for March 24, but lawyers in the case expect it to be pushed back for reasons unrelated to the new charges.

In addition to the conspiracy charges all five face, brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka were also charged with possession of weapons by illegal aliens.

Under yesterday's amended indictment, they and Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer were additionally charged with possession of a firearm for an illegal act. Serdar Tatar does not face weapons charges.

Source : PTI