More than 170 U.S. and Israeli victims of terrorism and their family members sued Iran and Syria on Tuesday, accusing the two countries of providing material support to terrorist organizations responsible for attacks in which they or their relatives were killed or injured.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Attorneys Gavriel Mairone and Oceane Maher, whose work focuses in part on counterterrorism, are representing the plaintiffs. The case names Iran, Syria, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat as defendants, along with Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The complaint alleges that Iran and Syria provided material support to Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and seeks to hold the two countries liable for 29 attacks carried out by those groups between 1995 and 2023 in Israel, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria and Lebanon.
The plaintiffs allege that Iran developed a “ring of fire” of “armed proxy organizations arrayed along Israel’s borders to coordinate attacks against Israel and advance Iran’s objective of destroying the Jewish state.”
Under the Assad regime, Syria was “Iran’s first and most important regional state partner” in supporting Tehran’s terror networks, the complaint states, adding that the Assad regime “facilitated the passage of Iranian personnel, funding and weapons through its territory for the benefit of Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist organizations.”
The complaint also accuses Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat of serving as conduits for Iranian funds to terrorist organizations.
“The terrorist attacks were part of a systematic and widespread campaign of suicide bombings, mass shootings and other murderous attacks against the Israeli civilian population and involved the intentional use of explosives, incendiary weapons, firearms and other lethal devices in public places, government facilities and public transportation systems,” the suit states.
The lawsuit was filed under the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which permits certain civil claims against foreign governments for terrorism-related injuries and deaths.
The filing comes one day after the United States formally removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, ending a designation that had been in place since 1979. The complaint argues that Syria remains liable for the attacks at issue because it was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism when they occurred and during the period preceding the lawsuit.
Among the attacks cited is the suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa on Oct. 4, 2003. According to the complaint, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member detonated a bomb at the restaurant, killing 21 people and injuring 60.
Oran Almog, a U.S. citizen and Israeli resident, was blinded in the attack. His father, grandparents, cousin and brother were killed, according to the complaint. Almog, his mother, Orly, and his sister, Adi, are among the plaintiffs.
Another plaintiff, Nimmer Mattar, became a U.S. citizen in 2004 after his brother, Sharbal, was killed in the Maxim bombing, the suit states.
Faiga Zvia Lieberman, a U.S. citizen, is among the plaintiffs. Her brother, Semuel Walner, was killed in a suicide bombing on Aug. 19, 2003, aboard a bus carrying Jewish worshippers returning from the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The suit alleges that Iran and Syria should be held responsible for the harm caused to the plaintiffs, including pain and suffering and loss of companionship and society. It argues that the countries’ material support for the terrorist organizations behind the attacks was “a substantial factor” in causing them and that the resulting deaths and injuries were foreseeable consequences of that support.
