A man described as the mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 American servicemen in Saudi Arabia has been captured, a US and a Saudi official said, 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, to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat reported Wednesday. 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 US$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 US Air Force personnel assigned to the Gulf, killed 19 Americans and wounded 372 more. It was the deadliest such attack targeting US forces since the 1983 bombing of the US 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.