FBI offers reward for info on 1994 Hezbollah terror attack

The Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 exploded shortly after takeoff from Colón, instantly killing everyone on board, including four Israelis and three Americans.

 Grad rockets used by Hezbollah  (photo credit: Alma Research Institute)
Grad rockets used by Hezbollah
(photo credit: Alma Research Institute)

The US is offering a reward of up to five million dollars for information on the 1994 bombing of a Panama flight, the FBI shared in an X/Twitter post on Tuesday.

The Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 exploded shortly after takeoff from Colón, instantly killing everyone on board, including four Israelis and three Americans.

Hezbollah attack

“The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has assessed that Hezbollah was responsible for the bombing of AC 901,” the US State Department and Washington’s embassy in Panama said in a recent statement. 

In 2017, the FBI found information that pointed to Hezbollah’s involvement in the attack but had been unconfirmed at the time.

The plane bombing had taken place just a day after the terrorist group blew up the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.

 IDF locates weapons by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
IDF locates weapons by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Earlier this year, the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation said in a ruling that both attacks “were organized, planned, financed, and executed under the direction of the authorities of the Islamic State of Iran within the framework of Islamic jihad and with the main intervention of the political and military organization – Hezbollah.”

The recent press release, which asks for any new information regarding the 1994 terror attack, also states that a man named Ali Hawa Jamal, who also died in the bombing, was identified as the suspect who carried the bomb aboard the aircraft.