US Judge: Sudan and Iran liable for 1998 embassy bombings

US Judge: Sudan and Iran liable for 1998 embassy bombings

By Toby Collins

December 4, 2011 (LONDON) – A US judge ruled on 30 November that Sudan and Iran should pay compensation to the victims of suicide bomb attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
US Embassy, Nairboi, Kenya, 1998 (Reuters)
On 7 August 1998 bombs destroyed the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and killed hundreds.

US district judge, John Bates, found the Iranian and Sudanese governments responsible for providing material aid and support to al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, who were accused of carrying out the attacks.

In Nairobi, Kenya, 291 people were killed, including 12 Americans, and over 5,000 were wounded. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 10 people were killed and 77 injured, including one US citizen.

Bates ruled that civil ligation against Sudan and Iran by the victims and their families is legitimate and they are due compensation.

The case against the Khartoum began in 2008 when a US investigation found “significant evidence indicating that senior government officials of the Islamic Republic of Sudan and Iran provided such support and finance to al Qaeda and therefore were enablers of the terrorist attack that killed and maimed hundreds of residents of Kenya and they must be held legally liable for the death and destruction caused.”

In a similar case plaintiffs are seeking US$12 billion in compensation from Iran for an attack on the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

Fay Kaplan Law, a lead counsel for several groups of plaintiffs said that non-US citizens working in the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies could also be due compensation.

Having gained statehood on 9 July 2011, South Sudan was not independent of Khartoum at the time of the attacks, yet will not be liable, according to Law.

In response to the bombings, on 20 August 1998 the US attacked targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. Cruise missiles were fired from US ships in the Red Sea striking a factory in Khartoum which was suspected of producing components for making chemical weapons.

Backed by Khartoum, the owner of the factory destroyed in the attack unsuccessfully sought US$50 million in compensation from the US Court of Claims, claiming it produced pharmaceutical products.

The Sudanese Minister for External Relations described the attack as a "grave act of terrorism."

Subsequent investigations corroborated the allegations that the US acted on flawed intelligence.

(ST)