Jordan sentenced to death yesterday nine al Qaeda militants, including four in absentia among them Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for a plot to launch chemical attacks against government and US targets in the kingdom.

The verdict is Jordan?s fourth death sentence in absentia against Zarqawi, al Qaeda?s leader in Iraq. He and the others, five of whom are held, were found guilty of planning the attacks which were thwarted in April 2004. Zarqawi?s real name is Ahmed Fadhil al-Khalayleh. Bin Laden appointed him as his deputy in Iraq in October 2004, when Zarqawi changed his group?s name from Tawhid wal Jihad to Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq. His group has claimed responsibility for many major suicide bombings and attacks in Iraq, as well as beheadings of foreign hostages. He has a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head. He was jailed for 15 years in 1996 but was freed three years later under an amnesty when King Abdullah assumed the throne.