WASHINGTON, Feb 22: A US federal judge has acquitted a 29- year-old American Muslim accused of setting up a Lashkar-e- Tayyaba network near the US capital. Nine other defendants face terrorism charges while one was sentenced in December 2003.

All 11 defendants are Muslims and nine of them are US citizens. They are accused of setting up a training cell to prepare for combat against Indian forces in occupied Kashmir.

Some of the defendants have been charged under a law that bars Americans from waging war against countries that are at peace with the US, in this case India. These men are also charged with hoarding weapons and ammunition as part of what the prosecutors said was a conspiracy.

The prosecution, however, said that the defendants used paintballs, and not weapons, to prepare to combat the Indian military, one of the world's largest. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema declared that prosecutors had failed to produce sufficient evidence of wrongdoing against the accused, Khalifa Pasha Ibn Abdur Raheem, during two weeks of trial. Some of Abdur Raheem's accomplices have pleaded guilty while others are currently in trial, which is scheduled to resume on Monday.

"Even drawing inferences in favour of the government, I find it is insufficient" evidence, the judge said as she dismissed all charges against Abdur Raheem.