Five Australians jailed for jihad plot

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Five Australian Muslim men convicted of plotting to commit violent jihad in Australia were jailed on Monday for terms ranging from 23 to 28 years.

The men were found guilty in October 2009 of conspiring to commit a terror attack between July 2004 and November 2005, by stockpiling weapons and chemicals to make bombs, in retaliation at Australia's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During a 10-month trial, the prosecutor told the New South Wales state Supreme Court that the defendants obtained instructions on how to make bombs capable of causing large-scale death and destruction and literature which glorified the actions of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The prosecution never told the court of any suspected target.

Judge Anthony Whealy said in sentencing the men that the group was motivated by "intolerant, inflexible religious conviction" and said the prospects of rehabilitation was poor.

The men, aged between 25 and 44 and who cannot be named by order of the judge, were arrested in Sydney in 2005 as part of Australia's largest ever terror raids.

Australia, a close U. S. ally, was among the first countries to commit troops to U.S.-led campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil, although 95 Australians have been killed in militant bombings in neighboring Indonesia since 2001.

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Nick Macfie)