Ceremony marks Khobar bombing anniversary

ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Family, friends and colleagues of 19 U.S. Air Force servicemen who were killed in the 1996 Khobar Towers bomb attack in Saudi Arabia marked the fifth anniversary of the tragedy Monday with a solemn ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The ceremony, with prayers, hymns and remarks honoring the victims' sacrifice, comes just days after a federal grand jury in Virginia handed down indictments against 14 alleged terrorists the FBI believes played a role in the bombing.

"We will pursue this matter, " former FBI Director Louis Freeh said, "to whatever end, to whatever consequence, to whatever logical and just conclusion. And you have my promise that I will do whatever I can to see that occurs in the years to come."

The service members had been living at the Khobar military complex in eastern Saudi Arabia as part of the U.S. military presence allowed by the Arab nation since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. They were killed when attackers parked a truck full of explosives near a military barracks and detonated it, destroying the building.

INFORMATION Naval forces in the Persian Gulf     MESSAGE BOARD Khobar Towers Indictments

The June 21 indictments accused the suspects of acting under the supervision and direction of the Iranian military. But no one in the Iranian military or other government officials were named in the indictments.

Freeh said he did not allow politics to interfere with the case. "I'm not a diplomat," he said. "I'm not a politician. I'm a policeman, and that's the way I conducted this case. And I want to assure you that all the decisions that have been made to date have been made on the basis of a policeman and not as a diplomat or a politician."

At the end of the ceremony, a memorial wreath from No Greater Love, an organization that provides remembrance programs, was placed at the graves of Michael Heiser and Brian McVeigh, two of the 19 who were killed.