Mastermind of 1996 al-Khobar Saudi bombing arrested in Lebanon

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al-MughassilA man described as the mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 American servicemen in Saudi Arabia has been captured, a U.S. and a Saudi official said Wednesday, ending a nearly two-decade manhunt for one of the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists.

Ahmed al-Mughassil was arrested in Beirut and transferred to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, according to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat. The Saudi Interior Ministry and Lebanese authorities had no immediate comment on the capture.

The 48-year-old suspect was described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the armed wing of the once-active but shadowy Saudi Hezbollah group. The FBI had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

The June 25, 1996, truck bombing at the Khobar Towers, an eight-story dormitory in eastern Saudi Arabia for U.S. Air Force personnel assigned to the Gulf, killed 19 Americans and wounded 372 more. It was the deadliest such attack targeting U.S. forces since the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines’ barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.

Al-Mughassil, also known as Abu Omran, is one of 14 people named in a 2001 indictment in Alexandria, Virginia, in connection with the bombing. Charges include murder of federal employees and bombing resulting in death.

The U.S. indictment said that elements of the Iranian government inspired, supported and supervised members of the Saudi Hezbollah group in the Khobar Towers attack, but it stopped short of naming any Iranian officials.

The Asharq Alawsat newspaper said al-Mughassil was arrested after Saudi authorities identified his whereabouts in Lebanon.

A Saudi official told The Associated Press that al-Mughassil was detained two weeks ago after arriving in Beirut from Iran. He allegedly tried to seek cover in a southern Beirut neighborhood that is a stronghold of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The security official said Saudi intelligence believes that four others wanted in the bombing are living in Iran.

 In this June 26, 1996 file photo, an unidentified U.S. soldier stands in front of the blast-shattered Khobar Towers housing complex, at a U.S. military base, that killed 19 Americans in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Ahmed al-Mughassil, suspected in the bombing has been captured, a U.S. official tells The Associated Press, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Al-Mughassil was described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the military wing of Saudi Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Greg Marinovich, File)
In this June 26, 1996 file photo, an unidentified U.S. soldier stands in front of the blast-shattered Khobar Towers housing complex, at a U.S. military base, that killed 19 Americans in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Ahmed al-Mughassil, suspected in the bombing has been captured, a U.S. official tells The Associated Press, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015. Al-Mughassil was described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the military wing of Saudi Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Greg Marinovich, File)

The Saudi and U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

Saudi Arabia has never directly blamed Iran — its regional rival — for the attack, and Iran has repeatedly denied being involved.

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled the Iranian government financed the bombing, ordering it to pay $254 million to the attack’s victims.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the capture but said: “The United States continues to stand with the victims and families harmed by this attack, and we’re going to continue working with Saudi Arabia and the international community to bring to justice all the perpetrators of it.”

The U.S. Justice Department also declined to comment.

FBI Director James Comey was the assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia who handled the investigation of the Khobar Towers bombing.

In the attack, militants parked a fuel tanker truck just outside the shallow perimeter of the apartment complex, 85 feet from one of the dormitories. The blast tore the face off one side of the building, leaving a massive crater.

The U.S. later moved its Air Force contingent to a compound in a remote stretch of desert south of Riyadh before withdrawing its troops from the kingdom in 2003.

Details of al-Mughassil’s life remain elusive. He was born in Saudi Arabia’s eastern city of Qatif, a predominantly underdeveloped Shiite region that is home to the kingdom’s vast oil reserves.

Toby Matthiesen, who has written extensively on Saudi Shiites in a book titled “The Other Saudis,” said al-Mughassil was rumored to have gone to Iran after the 1979 revolution and is believed to have fought at some point in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

The Saudi Hezbollah group, also called Hezbollah al-Hijaz, was established in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province in 1987 in retaliation to the killing of more than 400 Iranians who died in clashes that same year with Saudi riot police in Mecca during the annual hajj pilgrimage.

The kingdom’s minority Shiites have long complained that Saudi Arabia’s Sunni leadership treats their grievances as a security problem rather than an issue to be resolved politically.

 In this June 27, 1996 file photo, a U.S. Air Force officer climbs a pile of rubble to photograph the devastated building in Dhahran, Saudi Arabi where a truck bomb destroyed the eight story building behind Tuesday and killed 19 U.S. servicemen, injuring hundreds.  A man suspected in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia has been captured, a U.S. official tells The Associated Press. Ahmed al-Mughassil , described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the military wing of Saudi Hezbollah, is suspected of leading the attack that killed 19 U.S. service personnel and wounded almost 500 people.(AP Photo/Greg Marinovich, File)
In this June 27, 1996 file photo, a U.S. Air Force officer climbs a pile of rubble to photograph the devastated building in Dhahran, Saudi Arabi where a truck bomb destroyed the eight story building behind Tuesday and killed 19 U.S. servicemen, injuring hundreds. A man suspected in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia has been captured, a U.S. official tells The Associated Press. Ahmed al-Mughassil , described by the FBI in 2001 as the head of the military wing of Saudi Hezbollah, is suspected of leading the attack that killed 19 U.S. service personnel and wounded almost 500 people.(AP Photo/Greg Marinovich, File)

A handful of prominent Shiite activists met with the late King Fahd in 1993 for reconciliation talks after years of violence that included attacks by the Saudi Hezbollah group, which the kingdom has branded a terrorist organization.

The meeting — the culmination of many discussions between Saudi officials and Shiite activists in exile — resulted in the return of some 350 activists to the kingdom, the release of political prisoners, and a policy that allowed more Shiite mosques to be built.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, members of the Saudi Hezbollah group were either arrested or fled into exile, Matthiesen said. While the group was largely dismantled after the attack, Shiite protesters demanding greater rights are sometimes accused of belonging to the group or supporting it.

“The name Hezbollah al-Hijaz has been used to delegitimize any political activity in the Eastern Province,” he said, adding that the group never held mainstream support among Saudi Shiites, but had a popular base and a few hundred members at its peak.

The group, modeled after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, assassinated lower-ranking Saudi diplomats abroad and attacked oil installations in the Eastern Province in the late 1980s. The group has claimed responsibility for those attacks, but has consistently denied responsibility for the Khobar bombing, Matthiesen said.

Three other Saudis are still on the FBI’s most-wanted list for the attack: Ali al-Hoorie, Abdelkarim al-Nasser and Ibrahim al-Yacoub.

Nine other Saudis have been imprisoned in the kingdom for the past 19 years and given secret trials with unknown verdicts in connection with the attack, Matthiesen said. It’s unclear whether al-Mughassil will face a similar trial or be given one in a special court handling terrorism cases.

ASSSOCIATED PRESS

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14 responses to “Mastermind of 1996 al-Khobar Saudi bombing arrested in Lebanon”

  1. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
    Michaelinlondon1234

    So It still comes back to some one being abducted from Lebanon with out trial. Organised by the US government…Presumably so he can be murdered. (this is not getting in to whether he is guilty or not.)

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Wheels of Justice are slow. Look how long it takes to move garbage. But as God said somewhere, justice will prevail … no matter where one is hiding. There is, of course, a few that should be in the Hague at their own trials … but someday, God’ll get them anyway – confessing or not.
      One would think that if somebody places an international warrant on an innocent head, that person would show up to defend himself – with no ‘plea-bargains’. It would be the only way to live FREE.
      Now he’s back in his own system .. and the secret trials. ;-))

    2. MekensehParty Avatar
      MekensehParty

      ouin ouin ouin
      pissed that we caught your cousin?

      1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        good one.. where is Ali Khamenini when you need him. hahah
        so were hezbollah they didn’t like his capture either.

      2. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
        Michaelinlondon1234

        Not particularly. My gripe is we get upset when a couple of people die but when the US and UK do regime change for the 1% wealth lobbies or Pro Israel Lobbies in our countries and millions are maimed or die there is no justice for the victims

        1. MekensehParty Avatar
          MekensehParty

          Here’s a tissue, wipe your tears and here’s another tissue for going back at fantacizing on a nuclear holocaust…
          Oh and here’s a lighter for your same refrain

    3. The deadly trade in cluster bombs is funded by the world’s biggest banks who have loaned or arranged finance worth $20bn (£12.5bn) to firms producing the controversial weapons, despite growing international efforts to ban them.

      HSBC, led by ordained Anglican priest Stephen Green, has profited more than any other institution from companies that manufacture cluster bombs. The British bank, based at Canary Wharf, has earned a total of £657.3m in fees arranging bonds and share offerings for Textron, which makes cluster munitions described by the US company as “leaving a clean battlefield”.

      Campaigners maintain the deadly weapons can explode years after combat, killing or maiming innocent people.Money greedy people by killing others.

      1. British high-street banks, including two institutions that were bailed out by taxpayers, are investing hundreds of millions of pounds in companies that manufacture cluster bombs – despite a growing global ban outlawing the production and trade of the weapons.

        The Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB,Barclays and HSBC have all provided funding to the makers of cluster bombs, even as international opinion turns against a weapons system that is inherently indiscriminate and routinely maims or kills civilians.

        One year ago this month, Britain became an active participant in the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a global treaty that bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs. To date, 108 countries have signed the treaty, which also forbids parties from assisting in the production of cluster weapons.

        Yet there has been no attempt by the Coalition Government to rein in banks and investment funds that continue to finance companies known to manufacture the weapons.

        Using a loophole in the legislation, financial institutions can continue to back cluster-arms manufacturers as long as they don’t invest in the bombs directly.

        1. Everyone has heard that banking and wars are related, but only a handful of people understand how.

          This is how: Banks have a complete monopoly on creating and allocating money in the economy. That means they get to decide what gets funded – and what doesn’t.

          By creating the entire money supply as loans, the banking sector is able to collect interest on very nearly every pound in existence. This means in order for the non-banking economy (the other 98% of the population) to have a money supply with which it can trade, it must pay around 5% of all the money in existence to the banking sector each year. This results in a regular and ongoing transfer of wealthfrom the non-banking sector to the banking sector.

          And because the current system ensures a constant massive redistribution of wealth away from ordinary people to the banking sector, there is huge accumulated wealth in their hands which enables them to continually increase the investments in arms industry.

          1. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
            Michaelinlondon1234

            The US government put 2 trillion in to the Iraq war. The percentage that went straight back to the US society was ? 80-90% by my best guess. That the banks took there “cut” I have no doubt. It does not deal with the core problem of what industry does the US government implement to wean itself of regime change/Invading other peoples countries.? Same applies to the UK. Just not quite as bad.

          2. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
            Michaelinlondon1234

            Then you have this…
            http://www.albawaba.com/loop/coinciding-deaths-two-brothers-show-convoluted-saudi-arabia-734854
            All different branches of sunni killing ?

  2. was arrested in the toilet

  3. Hang on! I was under the impression Shiites didn’t commit terrorism. Ask hind and farqed up.
    (Watch farqed up reply)

    1. Hussein Avatar

      Well it is a military target and not a school I know you sunni prefer schools

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