Jordan's military court on Wednesday condemned al-Qaida frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and eight others to death for plotting a chemical bomb attack on the kingdom.

According to the ruling, Zarqawi and three others received the death penalty in absentia, while the plot's alleged mastermind Azmi al-Jayousi and four co-defendants were condemned to death in the dock.

Meanwhile, the court also sentenced two of the total 13 defendants to prison terms of between one and three years, and acquitted another two defendants.

Zarqawi and the other 12 defendants were charged with conspiring to attack various sites in Jordan by setting off a cloud of toxic chemicals in April 2004, having allegedly killed thousands of people.

Concerned sources said that the Wednesday's death sentence was the third one in his absence pronounced against the Jordan-born Islamist Zarqawi, the most wanted man by U.S. and Iraq.

Source: Xinhua