Middle East Peace and Security Initiative Nonresident Senior Fellow Nicholas Blanford writes for the Christian Science Monitor on the potential arrest of the architect of the 1996 Khobar Towers attack:
The reported arrest and handover of the accused architect of a 1996 terror attack in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US servicemen has been met with official silence here, one day after a Saudi newspaper broke the news.
If confirmed, the arrest of Ahmad Mughassil, military commander of the Iranian-backed Saudi Hezbollah organization believed to be behind the bombing, would be a coup for the Saudi government and the FBI, which had offered a $5 million reward for his capture. Ash Sharq al-Awsat, the Saudi newspaper, said he had been sent to a US military base in Saudi Arabia.