Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
IED Overview
The initials “IED” stand for “Improvised Explosive Device.” These are low-tech, essentially home-made bombs, used by terrorists and resistance fighters employing guerrilla tactics. The use of such devices dates back to the introduction of gunpowder in Europe during the 16th Century according to Engineer Bulletin. IEDs were used against German forces in both World Wars by underground resistance movements in occupied territories.
IEDs employed against the U.S. military during recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan include Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) and Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions (IRAMs), also known as “Rocket-Propelled Bombs.”
EFPs, which the New York Times have described as “the most lethal weapon American forces faced in Iraq,” are weapons capable of traveling up 100 yards while maintaining their shape and able to pierce heavy armor. What makes these devices particularly deadly is the fact that they are easily disguised and hidden in rocks, bushes and roadside debris.
IRAMs are made by filling a propane tank or other contain with explosives and attaching them to 107 millimeter rockets. IRAMs can be deployed from virtually anywhere within the rocket’s range; in Iraq, they were frequently launched from a mechanism that had been mounted to the bed of a pickup or utility truck and deployed remotely.
The Legal Issue
Veterans and active service personnel who have been injured by an IED, or surviving family members of one who has been killed, have filed lawsuits alleging that private banks in Europe and the US financed the purchase of materials used to build these weapons in Iran, which in turn provided these weapons in support of Shiite factions fighting against Sunnis and U.N. Coalition forces in the region.
This was in spite of an embargo put in place by the U.S. Congress, prohibiting any financial institutions from doing business of any kind in that country. The Iranian government has allegedly been able to find numerous ways around these prohibitions – as well as Western financial institutions willing to turn a blind eye to money laundering activities or that fail to do their due diligence in detecting suspicious transactions and taking appropriate action.
Under the Anti-Terrorism Act (18 U.S. Code § 2333), anyone who has been injured (or in the case of death, surviving family members) by an IED has the legal right to file a lawsuit against any individual, or institution that aided and abetted the attacks by funding the materials and construction of the weapon(s) in question.
IED Lawsuits and Settlements
Since it was revealed that Western banking institutions were involved in the financing of IED construction, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by combat veterans and their families against the ones alleged to have been involved.
A recent complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York named a number of defendant institutions that included HBSC and Barclay in the UK, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Germany’s Commerzbank and PNB Paribas of France. All four of these banking institutions have admitted to collusion with the government of Iran and have reached settlements with other plaintiffs.
