Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Mughassil born June 26, 1967 in Qatif

Qatif

Qatif or Al-Qatif is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in the east to King Fahd International Airport in the west...

 - Bab Al Shamal, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 is wanted by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 government in connection with the June 25, 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He was indicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of two United States district courts serving the Commonwealth of Virginia...

 and charged June 21, 2001 with 46½ separate criminal counts including murder for having driven the bomb truck that blew up Khobar Towers.

Al-Mughassil is also known as Abu Omran and Arfad. He has been identified as head of the military wing of the pro-Iran Saudi Hizballah, or Hizballah Al-Hijaz

Hizballah Al-Hijaz

Hezbollah Al-Hejaz is or was a militant organisation operating in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. It is outlawed in Saudi Arabia. Several of its members are wanted in the United States for their part in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing...

, meaning Party of God. The group is one of a number of related Hizballah terrorist organizations operating in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

 and Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

, among other places, and was outlawed in Saudi Arabia.

Khobar Towers plot, 1993–1996

The indictment traces the carefully organized 1996 bomb plot back to on or about 1993 when Al-Mughassil began to carefully review his cell members' surveillance reports of Americans in Saudi Arabia.

In the Fall of 1994, the cell determined Khobar Towers to be an important American military location and began an effort in the region to locate a storage site for explosives.

In 1995, an Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian military officer directed the cell's surveillance on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia for sites of possible future attacks against Americans, and the indictment alleges that Iranian officials enjoyed close ties and provided financial support to Al-Mughassil's party.

About June 1995, regular surveillance of Khobar Towers began, at the direction of Al-Mughassil. By late Fall 1995, Al-Mughassil had decided that Hizballah would attack Khobar Towers with a tanker truck loaded with explosives. In early 1996, Al-Mughassil began to hide explosives around the Khobar area.

In early June 1996, according to the indictment, a tanker truck was purchased by the conspirators, who then spent two weeks converting the truck into a truck bomb. The cell finalized plans on the evening of June 25, 1996, for the attack that night.

When the Datsun signaled that all was clear by blinking its lights, the bomb truck, driven by Al-Mughassil and with Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie

Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie

Ali Saed Bin Ali El-Hoorie Months after his 2001 indictment in the 1996 attack, El-Hoorie, still a U.S. fugitive, was then placed on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by President Bush on October 10, 2001.El-Hoorie is very short at only...

 as a passenger, entered the lot and backed up against a fence in front of building # 131. Al-Mughassil and El-Hoorie then exited the truck and entered the back seat of the Caprice for the getaway, driving away followed by the Datsun. In minutes, a massive explosion sheared the north face off of Building 131. 19 American servicemen were killed, and 372 were wounded.

Although rooftop sentries were immediately suspicious of the truck—parked some 80 feet from the building—and attempted an evacuation, few escaped. Comparable to 20,000 pounds of TNT, the bomb was estimated to be larger than the one that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma city

Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

 a year before, and more than twice as powerful as the 1983 bomb used at the Marine barracks in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

.

Fugitive trail

Immediately following the terrorist attack, the leaders fled the Khobar area and Saudi Arabia using fake passports.

In 2001, Al-Mughassil was eventually indicted along with his co-conspirators for the 1996 Khobar Towers attack. Still a U.S. fugitive months later, he then became one of four of the indicted men from the 1996 Khobar Towers attack who were named on the initial list of the FBI's top 22 Most Wanted Terrorists

FBI Most Wanted Terrorists

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists is a list of fugitives who have been indicted by sitting Federal grand juries in the United States district courts, for alleged crimes of terrorism. The initial list was formed in late 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks...

, which was released to the public by former President Bush on October 10, 2001.