By JAMAL HALABY .c 

The Associated Press  AMMAN, Jordan (April 20) - Jordan's military prosecutor today implicated 28 Arabs linked to Osama bin Laden of conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan.  Lt. Col. Mahmoud Obeidat said the 28 had ``plotted to destabilize public security'' and ``possessed and manufactured explosives'' to use unlawfully against U.S. interests and Israeli and American tourists in this pro-Western Arab kingdom.  

He told a three-man tribunal at the State Security Court the suspects were ``affiliated with an outlawed group'' involved in a ``conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks'' in Jordan.  He did not name the group in the indictment sheet he presented to the court during a public hearing marking the opening trial of the suspects - 13 of whom are at large and are being tried in absentia. 
The 15 others have been in custody since December.  Obeidat had earlier identified the group as al-Qaeda, or ``the base,'' a terrorist organization allegedly headed by bin Laden, the Saudi dissident who has declared holy war against the United States to protest the presence of American troops in his country, which also houses Islam's holiest shrines. 

 Obeidat said the 28 also belonged to another bin Laden group called the International Islamic Front, whose goal is to fight Jews and Christians. Bin Laden, who is believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan, is wanted by the United States for the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people.  If found guilty, the 28 face the death penalty.  Lt. Col. Tayel Raqad, the court's presiding judge, told The Associated Press before the hearing that the 15 defendants in custody would enter their pleas during today's session.  The defendants arrived at the heavily guarded court building on the outskirts of Amman in two armored vehicles escorted by two police cars and an army patrol car mounted with machine-guns and servicemen wearing shields.  

The defendants shouted ``Allahu Akbar,'' or God is Great, as their families -mostly men with long beards - looked on.  The 15 defendants include 13 Jordanians of Palestinian extraction, one Iraqi and an Algerian. The 13 at large are Jordanians, Palestinians and a Yemeni.  They could be hiding in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Britain, Lebanon or Syria, Obeidat said.  

The arrests four months ago exposed what officials say was the biggest conspiracy plotted in Jordan by Arab militants.  Officials at the time said the suspects planned bombing attacks on U.S. and Israeli tourists during the New Year's celebrations. 

The targeted sites were Mount Nebo, where tradition says Moses saw the Promised Land, and a Christian settlement along the Jordan River said to be the site where Saint John baptized Jesus.  Obeidat said some of the suspects will also stand trial later in a criminal court on charges of forging passports, official documents and stamps – crimes outside the jurisdiction of the state security court. Among the 13 suspects still at large is the group's leader, Zein al-Abedeen Mohammad Hassan, a Palestinian with an Egyptian travel document, Obeidat said. Hassan, also known as Abu Zubaydah, was living in Pakistan until he fled to Afghanistan last month.  AP-NY-04-20-00 0555EDT  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. 

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