ABSTRACT
On 25 June 1996, the detonation of a massive truck bomb, a converted fuel tanker laden with as much as 25,000 lb of explosives, ripped through an apartment building in al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, shattering the quiet of this former fishing village on the Persian Gulf coast. 1 The blast, which left a crater 85 feet deep and 35 feet wide, took aim at a residential complex being used to house foreign military personnel, killing 19 U.S. servicemen and wounding almost 400 others. 2 The bombing sent shockwaves throughout both Saudi Arabia and the United States. The strike forced the United States to reposition thousands of its military personnel to more secure facilities deeper in the heart of the kingdom. It also sent U.S. investigators and politicians scrambling to figure out who was responsible. Despite the magnitude of the attack, its deadly toll, and what would appear to be the clear anti-U.S. political message behind it, little is known for certain about the identities of the attackers or their networks of support in Saudi Arabia and, perhaps more importantly, their foreign loyalties.
