WASHINGTON (Kayhan Intl.) -- A Washington, D.C. federal court has ordered Iran to pay $879 million over the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia where U.S. forces were housed.
The plaintiffs, which include 14 injured U.S. Air Force members and 21 of their immediate family members, brought the lawsuit to the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
The U.S. government has accused Iran of directing thoe behind the bombing who reportedly detonated a 5,000-pound truck bomb at the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran. The blast killed 19 U.S. airmen and injured more than 400 others at the site charged with monitoring Iraqi compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell awarded plaintiffs $132 million for pain and suffering as well as prejudgment interest for a total compensatory damage award of $747 million and $132 million for punitive damages.
The attorneys intend to pursue enforcement of the judgments through litigation intended to seize Iranian assets.
Iran’s assets held in foreign banks have been subject to a witch hunt by the Americans who have used Washington’s animosity toward the Islamic Republic to easily win lawsuits against the country in U.S. courts. Iran has denounced U.S. seizures of its frozen assets as "highway robbery”.
The new ruling came as a UN human rights investigator said on Monday the January U.S. drone strike in Iraq that assassinated top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people represented a violation of international law.
The attack violated the UN Charter, Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, wrote in a report calling for accountability for assassinations by armed drones and for greater regulation of the weapons.
Iran has issued an arrest warrant for Trump and 35 others over Gen. Soleimani’s assassination and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on June 29.
Alqasimehr said Trump and others involved in the Jan. 3 assassination face "murder and terrorism charges”.
The plaintiffs, which include 14 injured U.S. Air Force members and 21 of their immediate family members, brought the lawsuit to the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
The U.S. government has accused Iran of directing thoe behind the bombing who reportedly detonated a 5,000-pound truck bomb at the Khobar Towers complex in Dhahran. The blast killed 19 U.S. airmen and injured more than 400 others at the site charged with monitoring Iraqi compliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell awarded plaintiffs $132 million for pain and suffering as well as prejudgment interest for a total compensatory damage award of $747 million and $132 million for punitive damages.
The attorneys intend to pursue enforcement of the judgments through litigation intended to seize Iranian assets.
Iran’s assets held in foreign banks have been subject to a witch hunt by the Americans who have used Washington’s animosity toward the Islamic Republic to easily win lawsuits against the country in U.S. courts. Iran has denounced U.S. seizures of its frozen assets as "highway robbery”.
The new ruling came as a UN human rights investigator said on Monday the January U.S. drone strike in Iraq that assassinated top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people represented a violation of international law.
The attack violated the UN Charter, Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, wrote in a report calling for accountability for assassinations by armed drones and for greater regulation of the weapons.
Iran has issued an arrest warrant for Trump and 35 others over Gen. Soleimani’s assassination and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on June 29.
Alqasimehr said Trump and others involved in the Jan. 3 assassination face "murder and terrorism charges”.
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