A federal court in Virginia gave a civil judgment against the Iranian and North Korean governments this month for sponsoring terrorists who killed or injured Americans.
The two countries now owe more than $486 million combined for seven terrorist attacks between 2019 and 2023, Clinton-appointed U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled on Sept. 8. The decision marks a win for 47 plaintiffs who are U.S. nationals, including people injured by terrorists and family members of those they killed.
The group sued Iran and North Korea in April 2025 under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows lawsuits against foreign governments responsible for terrorism. Iran and North Korea did not respond to the lawsuit in court, Brinkema’s ruling says.
The lawsuit focused on attacks in the Middle East and Africa between 2019 and 2023 by the Islamic groups al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as partners of al Qaeda and Hezbollah. The victims include U.S. military members and civilians, court records show.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and North Korea’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
The United States does not currently have a clear way to compel countries pay the victims’ damages. America has been in a deadly war with Iran for about seven months as peace negotiations continue to stall.
The most recent attack the lawsuit referenced was Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, which involved help from Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Iran’s government. The operation shocked the world for its brutal shootings, rapes, burnings, and kidnappings and took more than 40 American lives. Hamas also kidnapped 12 American hostages, some of whom died in captivity.
U.S. nationals Bernadette and Nir Brauner claimed damages in the Oct. 7 attacks because the terrorists severely wounded and traumatized the couple while they were attempting to visit family in Israel, the lawsuit reads.
North Korea also gave “vital support” to each terrorist group’s attacks through various financial streams, “powered Iran’s ability to attack Americans with missiles,” and even helped train their terrorist proxies through the years, the plaintiffs wrote, citing U.S. agencies.
The lawsuit also described more than the seven attacks at issue, seeking to pull back the curtain on the two regimes’ record of supporting “anti-American” violence.
“Iran was the but-for cause of every al-Qaeda attack since 2001,” the complaint said.
INTENSE GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE BECAME NORMAL AFTER 9/11. AMERICANS NOW SAY IT’S TOO MUCH
“As Osama bin Laden personally (and correctly) concluded, al-Qaeda would have collapsed after 2001 without the secret deal and Iran’s key support for al-Qaeda in the years following 9/11, and al-Qaeda’s subsequent ability to execute terrorist attacks depended upon Iran being al-Qaeda’s “main artery for funds, personnel, and communication,’” plaintiffs wrote, quoting a private letter from bin Laden that the U.S. released after killing him in 2011.
The Sept. 8 judgment comes after more than a decade of U.S. court rulings that held Iran partly responsible for the 9/11 attacks due to its enabling of al Qaeda. The U.S. government has long considered Iran to be the world’s top sponsor of terrorism. It has also designated North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism multiple times since 1988.