Page 224 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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202———Khobar Towers Bombing

of 56 hostages taken in
a PFLP hijacking that
occurred after Khaled’s
arrest. Since 1970, Khaled
has taken a less prominent
role in the Palestinian strug-
gle to regain their homeland.
She was associated with the
Palestine Liberation Organi-
zation (PLO) until 1982.
Today, she lives in Amman,
Jordan, with her second hus-
band and two sons. She
remains an ardent supporter
of the Arab movement.
See also GEORGE HABASH;
PALESTINE LIBERATION
ORGANIZATION; POPULAR
FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION The bomb crater in front of the severely damaged north side of the Khobar Towers
OF PALESTINE; TWA FLIGHT complex. The explosion of a fuel truck set off by terrorists on June 25, 1996,
840 HIJACKING killed 19 and injured hundreds.
Source: Defense Visual Information Center.
Further Reading
BBC News Online. “Transcripts: The Guerrilla’s Story.” The tanker truck that pulled up to Khobar Towers
January 1, 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_ just before 10 P.M. on the evening of the attack carried
depth/uk/2000/uk_confidential/newsid_1090000/1090 5,000 pounds of explosives—an even larger cache
986.stm, May 10, 2002. than that used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up
Khaled, Leila. My People Shall Live: The Autobiography of Oklahoma City’s federal building. The intense explo-
a Revolutionary. Edited by George Hajjar. London: sion, so loud it was heard some 20 miles away, left a
Hodder and Stoughton, 1973. crater 85 feet wide and 35 feet deep.
“Revolution Is Not Just for the Single.” New York Times, FBI director Louis Freeh traveled several times to
November 27, 1970, 54.
Saudi Arabia to interview suspects held in Saudi jails,
and publicly claiming that the Clinton administration
KHOBAR TOWERS BOMBING was not doing enough to pursue evidence involving
the Iranian government. U.S. officials built a case
charging leaders of the Iranian-backed Saudi
Nineteen U.S. service members were killed when Hezbollah terrorist group, and as the fifth year
a truck bomb destroyed their high-rise Air Force bar- anniversary of the bombing grew near, the United
racks in Dhahran, eastern Saudi Arabia, on June 25, States indicted 14 men in the attack. The 46-count
1996. Bombers pulled a tanker truck stuffed with indictment, announced on June 21, 2001, charged 13
explosives up next to the dormitory, and then jumped Saudi Shiite Muslims and one Lebanese man in the
into waiting vehicles, escaping just before the detona- bombing plot. According to the indictment, the
tion. About 500 people were injured in the explosion. bombing plot had been in the works for more than
The towers housed the 2,000 U.S. military person- three years by Saudi Hezbollah members, who
nel assigned to the King Abdul Aziz Airbase in Saudi wanted to oust Americans from Saudi Arabia. The
Arabia. The service members were at the airbase bombers transported the explosives from Beirut and
near Dhahran in order to mount patrols over the no- stuffed them into a tanker truck.
flight zone in southern Iraq that was declared after the At a news conference announcing the indictment,
Persian Gulf War. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that Iranian