A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is legally responsible for ten additional insurgent attacks in Iraq between 2004 and 2011, clearing the way for dozens of American victims and their families to seek damages.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a 49-page memorandum opinion granting default judgment against Iran on liability for four primary plaintiffs, while deferring final rulings on emotional distress damages for 35 family members. The decision expands on a decade-long legal battle under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which allows Americans to sue designated state sponsors of terrorism for personal injury or death caused by extrajudicial killings or the provision of material support to militant groups.
The lawsuit, originally filed in February 2016 by more than 300 plaintiffs, accuses Iran of supplying funds, weapons, and specialized training to Iraqi Shi’a militias through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Court records show the ten newly adjudicated attacks resulted in the deaths of 11 U.S. service members and civilians, and wounded two others.
Among the incidents detailed in the ruling was an April 4, 2004, ambush in the Sadr City section of Baghdad that killed Specialist Robert Arsiaga. According to expert testimony cited by the court, a convoy attempting a rescue mission drove into a 300-yard-long ambush orchestrated by the Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) militia, an Iranian proxy. Arsiaga was shot and killed while riding in the back of an unarmored Light Medium Tactical Vehicle.
The court also found Iran liable for the August 2, 2005, abduction and murder of Steven Vincent, an American freelance journalist working in Basra. Vincent was kidnapped by armed men in police uniforms using a local police vehicle in a JAM-controlled area shortly after publishing an article in The New York Times detailing militia infiltration of the Basra police force. An FBI investigation later determined that JAM claimed responsibility for the killing.
Several of the attacks involved the use of explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) and Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions (IRAMs), which the U.S. military categorized as signature weapons supplied by Iran. On April 8, 2008, Staff Sergeant Jeffrey Hartley was killed instantly in Kharguliah when a precision-manufactured, copper-lined EFP concealed in a burlap sack detonated next to his convoy vehicle.
On April 28, 2008, a volley of 14 IRAMs fired from a mobile launch platform struck Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad, destroying a theater and killing Private First Class Adam L. Marion and Sergeant Mark Stone.
Other service members killed in the attacks included Staff Sergeant Blake Harris, Staff Sergeant Emanuel Pickett, Colonel Stephen Scott, Major Stuart Wolfer, Private First Class Cody J. Eggleston, and Specialist Daniel P. Drevnick.
The ruling also established liability for injuries sustained by Staff Sergeant George D. White and John McCulley, a civilian contractor, who were wounded during a June 29, 2011, IRAM attack on Contingency Operating Base Shocker in Wasit Province. Following that incident, the Iranian-backed proxy Kata’ib Hezbollah posted a video online showing the munitions being fired at the base.
Because Iran failed to respond to the lawsuit through diplomatic channels, the clerk of the court entered a default. Under the FSIA, a default judgment cannot be entered automatically; plaintiffs must establish their right to relief with evidence satisfactory to the court. Judge Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the extensive reports and testimonies provided by military intelligence and explosive experts met the legal standard necessary to prove that Iran’s material support was the proximate cause of the injuries and deaths.
“The IRGC, along with Hezbollah, provided expertise, financial support, and material resources to Iranian proxies in Iraq, specifically to facilitate the use of EFPs and other types of weaponry against U.S. military servicemembers in furtherance of Iranian strategic interests,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote.
The court did not rule on liability or damages for the 35 family members seeking solatium damages for emotional distress. The judge noted that while the attacks were “sufficiently extreme and outrageous” to cause severe emotional harm, those individual plaintiffs must still submit documentation to a special master verifying their relationship to the victims and their status as U.S. nationals, military members, or government employees.
Determinations regarding the exact financial damages to be awarded to all 39 plaintiffs will be handled in subsequent proceedings by court-appointed special masters.
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