19 U.S. Servicemen Lost Their Lives in 1996 Attack
The Christian Science Monitor says Ahmad
Mughassil, the mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers attacks, was reportedly
detained in Beirut and handed over to authorities in Saudi Arabia.
Mughassil
has been indicted by a U.S. court as being the architect of the truck bomb
attack that devastated the towers at a U.S. military base in Dhahran, killing
19 U.S. servicemen and injuring 372 people in June 1996. It was the deadliest
blast against U.S. troops since the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing in
Beirut.
Mughassil
was the military commander of Saudi Hezbollah, an Iranian Quds Force-backed
extremist organization believed to be behind the attack. If confirmed, his
arrest and extradition to Saudi Arabia would be a coup for the Saudi government
and could be a disaster for Iran and the Quds Force if Mughassil cooperates
with the authorities. The FBI had offered $5 million for his capture. Ash Sahrq al-Awsat said Mughassil has
been sent to a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia.
The
Associated Press quoted an unidentified Saudi official as saying Mughassil, a
Shia from Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, was arrested two weeks ago in Beirut
after having arrived from Iran. He was attempting to reach the
Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut when he was detained, the
official told AP.
Matt
Levitt, a counter-terrorism and intelligence expert at the Washington
Institute, told CSM that Mughassil was living in Beirut prior to the 1996
attack and ran the Khobar operation from there. (Christian Science Monitor, 27 August)
Iran is
reportedly the principal backer of Saudi Hezbollah, also known as Hezbollah
al-Hijaz, as well as its powerful Lebanese counterpart. A 2001 federal indictment
accused Mughassil and 12 other Saudi Hezbollah members of carring out the
Khobar bombing. The indictment also provided details of the alleged links
between Iran and the Saudi and Lebanese Hezbollah.
Iran has
always denied any involvement in the Khobar Towers bombing.
File
photo: A Saudi and a U.S. serviceman (r.) walk through the rubble in front of
the Khobar Towers housing complex at a U.S. military base in Dhahran. 19 U.S.
servicemen were killed when a truck bomb devastated the towers in June 1996.
(Greg Marinovich/AP)
