Iran sentenced to pay $104 million in compensation to victims of Al-Khobar explosion
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday, September 9, ordered Iran to pay $104 million in compensation to the families of the victims of the attack on the American military base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
According to Reuters, Judge Burley Howell issued the ruling while Iran and the Revolutionary Guard did not appear in court to defend themselves.
Judge Howell said that 15 military personnel who were present at the eight-story Al Khobar complex when the explosion occurred were traumatized by the attack. He added that 24 relatives whose loved ones were injured in the incident were also traumatized.
The victims' families have sought compensation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act against Terrorism.
Paul Gaston, a lawyer for the families of the victims of the attack, said: "The plaintiffs are very happy with the court's decision and are now looking for ways to obtain this compensation."
On the evening of June 25, 1996, a tanker truck filled with TNT exploded in the parking lot in front of a building where about 100 US Air Force personnel were staying.
In the Al-Khobar Towers bombing, 19 Americans were killed and 372 were injured, and two people who parked the tanker truck and drove away in a Chevrolet were later arrested by Saudi police.
Saudi Arabia and the United States pointed the finger of blame at Iran after the explosion at the aforementioned American base, but Tehran officials denied any involvement in the explosion.
The FBI's investigation into the Al-Khobar bombing case on June 21, 2001, led to the indictment of 13 members of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
In 2006, a US federal court ordered Iran to pay $254 million to the families of 17 victims of the blast, for what it called its involvement in the blast.
The 209-page indictment of the American court stated that the truck bomb used in the Khobar explosion was equipped at a military base in the Bekaa Valley, which is controlled by Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards, and that the attack was carried out with the authorization of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic.
Source: Radio Farda
