On September 7, 2007, a federal judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Iran must compensate the families of 241 US military personnel killed in the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut. The holding awarded $2.65 billion, the largest such judgment ever awarded by a US court against a foreign country, to survivors and relatives of the victims and allows them to make a bid for Iranian assets held around the world. Iran later dismissed the ruling, calling it "baseless" and "politically motivated."

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Learn more about the 1983 Marine barracks bombing from the BBC.