Bombing Victims Win Big, if Symbolic, Victory

(CN) - Each of the 374 victims remaining in a civil lawsuit against al-Qaida for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa stands to collect more than $116 million dollars - if they can get the terrorist group to pay, a federal judge ruled.

The simultaneous truck bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people and injured thousands of others.

The twin bombings, which followed Osama bin Laden's notorious fatwas urging attacks on U.S. and Jewish targets around the world, were al-Qaida's deadliest strike against the United States before the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks.

Victims of the attacks sued al-Qaida, bin Laden, the Sudan, Afghanistan and the United States in a federal court in Washington one year later.

Every defendant save for al-Qaida dropped off as the nations won dismissal, and bin Laden met his end at a Navy SEAL's gunpoint.

Al-Qaida never showed up at a 2011 trial culminating in a $161,309,500 penalty per victim verdict.

U.S. District Judge John Facciola entered the final judgment on Tuesday.

The victims' lawyer Philip Musolino did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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