Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, Conspiracy to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction, New York 2001

A 35-year-old Jordanian woman has been charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. nationals outside the U.S., resulting in death, in connection with a 2001 terrorist attack in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including two U.S. nationals.

According to a federal complaint unsealed today, Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, also known as “Khalti” and “Halati,” participated in the Aug. 9, 2001, suicide bomb attack at a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, which also injured four other U.S. nationals and approximately 120 others.

Al-Tamimi, who admitted to her role in the deadly terrorist bombing, pleaded guilty in an Israeli court in 2003 to multiple counts of murder arising from the Sbarro suicide bomb attack and was sentenced to 16 life terms of incarceration. However, she served only eight years of the sentence before being released on or about Oct. 28, 2011, as part of a prisoner exchange between the government of Israel and Hamas.

“Al-Tamimi is an unrepentant terrorist who admitted to her role in a deadly terrorist bombing that injured and killed numerous innocent victims,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary B. McCord. “Two Americans were killed and four injured.”

Al-Tamimi was returned to Jordan upon her release from incarceration and has been the subject of an international manhunt ever since. The U.S. has worked and will continue to work with its foreign partners to obtain custody of Al-Tamimi so she can be held accountable for her actions.

The FBI continues to work with its international partners to combat terrorists like Al-Tamimi and hold them accountable. “Al-Tamimi is a terrorist who participated in an attack that killed United States citizens,” said Assistant Director in Charge Andrew Vale of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and is the result of a thorough investigation by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, in coordination with the Israeli National Police and other international partners.

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