The main suspect in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a US military base in Saudi Arabia has been captured after nearly 20 years on the run, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported yesterday.
The Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said Ahmed al-Mughassil, the leader of the militant organization Hezbollah al-Hejaz who was indicted by a US court for the attack that killed 19 US service personnel and wounded almost 500 people, had been captured in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and transferred to Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia and the US have accused Iran of orchestrating the truck-bomb attack. Iran has denied any responsibility.
Asharq al-Awsat quoted official Saudi sources as saying Saudi security personnel had received information about the presence of 48-year-old Mughassil in Beirut.
“The discovery of Mughassil and his arrest in Lebanon and his subsequent transfer to Saudi Arabia is a qualitative achievement, for the man had been in disguise in a way that made it hard to identify him,” Asharq al-Awsat said.
In 2006, a US federal judge ordered Iran to pay US$254 million to the families of 17 US service personnel killed in the attack in a judgement entered against the Iranian government, its security ministry and the Revolutionary Guards.
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