The two terror wannabes were training at paintball ranges, the feds say - and this is not the first time the shoot-em-up recreational game has been used by jihadis.

Carlos Eduardo Almonte,and Mohamed Mahmood Alessa practiced "simulated combat" with paintball guns while at an outdoor facility in West Milford, N.J. in March 2008, authorities said.

Almonte even alllegedly practiced "various shooting and crawling positions" with a paintball gun at the home of the undercover NYPD cop who helped bust him.

The owner of New Breed Paintball in West Milford, N.J., said the feds visited him earlier this year but denied the terror duo used his paintball park.

This is not the first time aspiring terrorists used paintball to practice for jihad.

In 2007, the sport helped five Muslims prepare for a plotted attack on Fort Dix, N.J., officials said. And in June 2003, 11 Virginia men with ties to Lashkar-i-Taiba, the group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai massacre, used paintball to simulate small-unit tactical operations.