I’m not given to anniversaries or other attendant numerology, but it caught my eye that it’s exactly 12 years since the Khobar Towers truck bombing of 25 June 1996 in Saudi Arabia.

From the FBI indictment of the 14 men charged with offences relating to the bombing:

At about 10:00 p.m. on June 25, 1996, a tanker truck loaded with at least 5,000 pounds of plastic explosives was driven into the parking lot in front of the Khobar Towers residential complex in Dhahran. Moments later a massive explosion sheared the face off of Building 131, an eight-story structure which housed about 100 U.S. Air Force personnel. Although rooftop sentries were immediately suspicious of the truck - parked some 80 feet from the building - and attempted an evacuation, few escaped. Comparable to 20,000 pounds of TNT, the bomb was estimated to be larger than the one that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City a year before, and more than twice as powerful as the 1983 bomb used at the Marine barracks in Beirut.

The attacks were attributed to Hizballah Al-Hijaz (Party of God in the Hijaz), with alleged links to al-Qaeda, presumably before the factional Shia/Sunni split. The 9/11 Commission report alleges that Osama bin Laden was seen being congratulated on the day of the bombing, and perhaps acted as a facilitator for the group. Iran has repeatedly been fingered by the US as the state sponsor behind the attacks. None of these allegations has been substantiated by publicly available evidence.

Joshua Woody’s Memorial Site.

Call for Papers:

4th BRISMES Annual Graduate Conference
London School of Economics and Political Science
Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th September 2008

The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) Graduate Section invites graduate students at any stage of their research from all Universities in the UK to submit papers exploring any Middle East-related subject for the 2008 Annual Graduate Conference at the LSE.

The Conference seeks to encourage inter-disciplinary studies on the region and a cross-fertilisation of ideas and concepts, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The Conference will provide a supportive environment where students can share their ideas, practice their presentation skills, receive feedback on their research projects and exercise their critical abilities in a constructive way. The two-day event will also provide advice on practical matters such us funding, fieldwork and career development. This year the Conference will be expanded to include a higher number of panels, providing as many students as possible with the opportunity to present their work, and with a view to potential publication for a selection of the best papers. Set amidst the vibrancy of London, the Conference aims to provoke discussion and debate and to bridge disciplinary divides among the future scholars on the Middle East.

More details on the BRISMES website (h/t Jaz).