Al-Nasser, Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed (?–)

On June 21, 2001, Abdelkarim al-Nasser was indicted in the United States for his role in coordinating the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers, a high-rise U.S. military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The FBI lists al-Nasser as one of its “most wanted terrorists.”

Khobar Towers after the June 25, 1996, bombing of the U.S. high-rise barracks that killed 19 soldiers. Abdelkarim al-Nasser was indicted in June 2001 for his role in coordinating the bombing.

Defense Visual Information Center.

The indictment asserts that al-Nasser, who was born in Al Ihsa, Saudi Arabia, was the head of Saudi Hezbollah in the 1990s. That group is largely made up of young Shiite Muslim men who are loyal to Iran, not the Saudi government. Saudi Hezbollah, also called Hezbollah al-Hijaz, is outlawed in Saudi Arabia, thus Al-Nasser often met other organization leaders in Lebanon, Syria, or Iran.

Saudi Hezbollah operatives frequently gathered at the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine in Damascus, Syria, an important religious site for Shiite Muslims. The site was also a prime recruiting place for Saudi Hezbollah; its operatives often approached men on religious pilgrimages.

According to the indictment, al-Nasser's military operations chief, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil, planned and carried out much of the attack on the Khobar Towers in an attempt to force the U.S. military from Saudi Arabia. Weeks before the attack, al-Nasser led a meeting at the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine [Page 19]to discuss the final plans for the truck bomb assault. On the evening of June 25, 1996, al-Mughassil and fellow Saudi Hezbollah member Ali Saed bin Ali el-Hoorie drove a truck carrying more than 5,000 pounds of explosives to the Khobar Towers; they parked the truck and quickly drove off in a waiting getaway car. Minutes later, the truck exploded, killing 19 U.S. service members and wounding another 500 people.

Eleven of the 14 men charged with the bombing are in Saudi custody. Saudi Arabia has challenged U.S. jurisdiction because the attack was on Saudi soil and was committed largely by Saudi citizens. The Saudi government has declared that it will not extradite these men.

Three other men indicted in the Khobar case, Ahmad al-Mughassil, Ali el-Hoorie, and Ibrahim Salih Mohammed al-Yacoub are also on the FBI's “most wanted” list. The U.S. State Department is offering an award of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the arrest or indictment of al-Nasser.