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U.S. Justice Department Brings Indictments For 1996 Saudi Bombing
WASHINGTON, June 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Louis Freeh announced Thursday the indictment of 14 people in the 1996 truck bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment building that killed 19 U.S. airmen stationed in Saudi Arabia and wounded more than 370 people.
Ashcroft said that those indicted for the bombing in the eastern Saudi town of Dhahran include leading members of the Saudi Hezbollah organization, and that the indictment also alleges that elements of the Iranian government "inspired" and "supervised" the bombing operation.
However, "this indictment does not name as defendants individual members of the Iranian government," Ashcroft said.
Freeh said in a statement, "These five years have been particularly trying for the survivors and the families.
"I hope that this development and our commitment to continue pursuing this investigation strengthens their faith in the criminal justice system and helps them in healing."
According to the Washington Post, the 46-count indictment comes four days before the fifth anniversary of the blast, triggered in a rigged fuel tanker truck explosion which toppled an eight-to-10 story apartment tower about 35 feet away that housed U.S. troops, and French, British and Saudi citizens, damaging other buildings in the Khobar complex.
The blast left a hollow, 35-feet deep and 85 feet wide, crater and echoed audibly across the Persian Gulf waters to Bahrain, the Post said.
Saudi Arabia initially refused to allow the FBI to conduct its own investigation, instead passing on their own reports to the FBI, but in 1999 relented and allowed U.S. investigators to observe Saudi interrogations in the case, the Post reported.
The indictment reportedly identifies the individuals as 13 Saudi nationals and one Lebanese national. Ashcroft said that an as-yet unidentified member of the Lebanese Hezbollah aided the Saudi bombers.
The indictments are on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, Ashcroft said. The conspiring took place over a three-year period in which the attack was being planned.
At the time - in 1993 - a Saudi Hezbollah military leader, Ahmed al-Nughassil, began surveillance of Americans in Saudi Arabia at the behest of Iranians involved in the scheme, the Post said.
In 1995, the focus narrowed on Khobar Towers and by late fall of 1995, Nughassil had decided on the course of action for Hezbollah's attack, motivated by a desire to drive Americans out of the Gulf region, according to the Post.
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