Saudi Arabia holding main suspect in 1996 Khobar Towers bombing

A Lebanese security source said that Mughassil, a Saudi national, had been detained in Lebanon and transferred to Saudi Arabia around two weeks ago and that he was considered by Riyadh as the top suspect in the case.

While Saudi Arabia has now arrested the main suspect in the 1996 bombing of the Alkhobar Towers residence at an American military base in the country, the hunt continues for three others, according to reports in the local media on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will meet President Barack Obama at the White House on September 4, the White House said, as Washington and Riyadh seek to shore up relations after a period of tension mainly over a U.S.-led nuclear deal with Iran.

In fact, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in 2006 ordered Iran to pay $254 million in damaged to the victims of the Khobar Towers attack.

Toby Matthiesen, author of “The Other Saudis”, said al-Mughassil was rumored to have gone to Iran after the 1979 revolution and is believed to have fought in Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. The group emerged in 1987 with bombings in Ras Tanoura.

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. Al-Zayidi said the Ministry of Interior listed the Hezbollah Al-Hejaz organization on its list of terrorist groups in March 2014.

The attack sparked a hunt for members of the group, resulting in the arrest of several suspects. 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. As David Kirkpatrick accurately recalls in his article in the New York Times about Mughassil’s reported capture, Saudi leaders were anxious back then that the United States would react too strongly against Iran, especially with reactions involving military force.

The group, modeled after the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, assassinated lower-ranking Saudi diplomats overseas and attacked oil installations in the Eastern Province in the late 1980s. Bill Clinton did much the same when the FBI’s investigation into the 1996 Khobar Towers attack began pointing to Iran.

Al-Mughassil, 48, had been indicted bya US court for the attack.