Tapes showing shootings played at Ft. Dix trial of 5

The soldier's wrist watch reflected in the bright Iraqi sun as he stood next to a Humvee.

Then there was a loud crack and he fell to his knees. Another soldier dragged him away.

Exhibit 400, titled "Baghdad sniper," was one of several videos federal prosecutors played yesterday for the jury in U.S. District Court in Camden.

The videos were found in a desktop computer seized at the Cherry Hill home of brothers Shain and Eljvir Duka, two of the five men accused of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.

In another video, a coalition vehicle explodes.

"Mr. Price, did you hear the words 'Allahu Akbar' right after the explosion?" Assistant U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick, referring to the Arabic words for "God is great," asked FBI computer forensics analyst Justin Price.

"Yes, I did," Price replied.

Prosecutors claim that the Dukas, their brother Dritan, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar were inspired by al Qaeda to defend Islam and planned to commit similar acts at Fort Dix.

All five of the foreign-born Muslims, who lived in Cherry Hill and Philadelphia, were arrested on May 7, 2007, and charged with conspiracy to murder military personnel and attempted murder. They face life in prison, if convicted.

Prosecutors spent most of the afternoon playing the videos seized from the computer at Eljvir and Shain Duka's home.

The videos featured what appeared to be coalition soldiers being taken out by sniper fire, montages of Osama bin Laden, images of President Bush and other coalition leaders with crosshairs on their foreheads, and several exploding Humvees.

Most of the videos featured Arabic singing or chanting in the background.

As the videos played, several of the defendants' family members sobbed in the courtroom and one alternate juror appeared to be disturbed by the footage, covering her mouth and an eye with her hand.

Two of the longer videos followed a small group of insurgents, documentary-style, as they prepared and trained for attacks.

In the morning, prosecutors played one of the tapes that the defendants made during a trip to the Poconos.

That video features the defendants, plus a handful of other people who were not charged, shooting weapons at a snow-covered firing range.

That video also features chanting or singing in the background, and the government contends the defendants were at the range to train.

Federal prosecutors also called several witnesses, including FBI special agents, who searched the defendants' homes after their arrests.

Those agents seized hundreds of rounds of ammunition, smoke bombs, computers, rifle scopes, knives and videos from the homes.

The four weapons shown in the Poconos video were recovered at the home of Agron Abdullahu, in Williamstown, Gloucester County. He pleaded guilty to supplying guns to illegal aliens, and is serving a 20-month sentence.

The defense contends that the men simply enjoyed shooting weapons and noted that the items seized at the homes weren't totally hidden.

Michael Huff, Dritan Duka's attorney, pointed out that the video prosecutors showed of the men shooting in the Poconos had been clearly labeled "horseback riding and shooting" and found in a bag with other home videos.

Prosecutors said they plan to play portions of videos depicting beheadings during today's proceedings. *