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The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 U.S. military personnel and injured more than 500 people.

From Kelli Arena
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At least 14 people are likely to be indicted in the 1996 bombing of a U.S. Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. service members and injured more than 500.

The indictments surrounding the deadly explosion at Khobar Towers will include a Lebanese chemist who allegedly built the bomb, and 13 Saudi members of the militant Hezbollah group, government sources said Wednesday.

The sources said no final decision has been made on the indictments, but with the statute of limitations due to expire for some of the possible charges on June 25, one is expected within a matter of days.

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Sources close to the investigation told CNN that U.S. law enforcement officers may not have enough evidence to indict Iranian intelligence officials. U.S. officials have said for months they are suspected of helping to plan the attack.

Government sources say cooperation from the Saudis in an effort to collect evidence of an Iranian connection has been less than complete.

Before any final decision is made on what indictments to seek, a meeting is expected between Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Sources acknowledged the decision on whether to indict is both a criminal justice and foreign policy decision. U.S. officials say law enforcement has received cooperation from the State Department and the White House.

Saudi officials have said that 13 Saudi members of Hezbollah, identified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group, have been implicated in the bombing.

On the question of Iran's possible involvement, CNN learned Tuesday that Rumsfeld was briefed at the end of May about a list of military options that could be employed if the United States wanted to launch retaliatory strikes against Iran for the 1996 bombing.

Pentagon officials said, however, that military action against Iran is not under active consideration, because the evidence linking Iran's government to the bombing is inconclusive, and because such strikes would likely undermine the current reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami, who just won re-election this past week.

Pentagon sources said there has been evidence ever since the truck bomb attack that linked Iranians to the blast, and former Defense Secretary William Perry once publicly identified Iran as a suspect. Other U.S. officials said the United States has long suspected members of Iranian security forces of being linked to the attack on Khobar Towers at the King Abdul Aziz air base.

But a Pentagon official described the evidence of an Iranian link as "not enough to win an indictment, but enough to make an informed policy decision."

The problem, he said, is linking the Iranians who may have played a part in the bombing to the Iranian government of the time.

"Were they state actors?" the official said, "or were they acting outside the government's control?"