Khobar Towers bombing
| Khobar Tower Bombings | |
|---|---|
Building #131 after the bombing.
|
|
| Location | Khobar, Saudi Arabia |
| Date | June 25, 1996 9:50 pm – (UTC+3) |
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Attack type
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Truck bomb, mass murder, state sponsored terrorism |
| Deaths | 20 |
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Non-fatal injuries
|
498 |
| Perpetrators | Hezbollah Al-Hejaz/Iran |
The Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company (Saudi Aramco) headquarters of Dhahran and nearby King Abdulaziz Air Base on June 25, 1996. At that time, Khobar Towers was being used as quarters for Coalition forces who were assigned to Operation Southern Watch, a no-fly zone operation in southern Iraq, as part of the Iraqi no-fly zones.
A truck bomb was detonated adjacent to Building #131, an eight-storey structure housing members of the United States Air Force's 4404th Wing (Provisional), primarily from a deployed rescue squadron and deployed fighter squadron. In all, 19 U.S. servicemen and a Saudi local were killed and 498 of many nationalities were wounded. The official June 25, 1996 statement by the United States named members of Hezbollah Al-Hejaz (English: Party of God in the Hijaz) as responsible. In 2006, a U.S. court found Iran and Hezbollah guilty of orchestrating the attack.
A November 13, 1995 car bombing in Riyadh led the U.S. forces stationed at Khobar Towers to raise the threat condition to THREATCON DELTA. Days after the attack, military commanders briefed soldiers and airmen at Khobar that the U.S. had received anonymous communications from an organization claiming to have carried out the Riyadh attack. The attackers claimed their goal was to get the United States Armed Forces to leave the country, and that Khobar Towers would be attacked next if troop withdrawal did not begin immediately. It was at this time that surveillance and other suspicious activity near the perimeter fences of Khobar Towers was noted by United States Air Force Security Forces; however, the forces were forbidden by the Saudi government to act in any capacity outside the perimeter of the compound, and the surveillance continued with near impunity.
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