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Suspect in 1996 Khobar Towers bombing arrested

Mughassil is the alleged mastermind behind the Khobar tower bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen.

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The 48-year-old was detained in Beirut and sent to Saudi Arabia where he is being interrogated, the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat daily said quoting unnamed officials.

The main suspect in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia is reported to have been captured. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report to The Associated Press.

The US has accused Iran of being behind the bombing – something it has denied.

Few details have been given about the Mughassil’s capture but Saudi media said that “the discovery of Mughassil… is a qualitative achievement”.

In all, 13 Saudis and one Lebanese were indicted in connection with the bombing.

A US federal judge ruled in 2006 that Iran should pay $254 million (£163 million) to the families of 17 of the US service personnel killed in the attack.

Joshua Stueve, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, declined comment.

The prosecutor in the 2001 case was James Comey, who is now the director of the FBI.

On the night of the attack, Mughassil and another Hezbollah operative drove a tanker truck laden with 5,000 pounds of plastic explosives into the U.S. compound.

This video includes images from Getty Images and U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt.

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The Saudi Hezbollah group, also called Hezbollah al-Hijaz, was established in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province in 1987 in retaliation to the killing of more than 400 Iranians who died in clashes that same year with Saudi riot police in Mecca during the annual hajj pilgrimage. Four prominent Shiite activists met with the late King Fahd in 1993 for reconciliation talks after years of violence that included attacks by the Saudi Shiite Hezbollah group, which the kingdom has branded a terrorist organization.

Saudi Arabia holding main suspect in 1996 Khobar bombing-newspaper