A New York judge awarded $6 million USD to victims of terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, in a lawsuit against the Al Qaida extremist group and the government of Iran.

Judge Frank Maas became the first in to impose civil sanctions against those allegedly responsible for the terrorist action which involved New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and killed some 3,000 people, according to The New York Daily News.

Last year, George Daniels, federal judge for the southern district of New York, declared that the Iran and the Hizbollah group took part in the 9/11 attacks in 2011, and suggested demanding compensation for the victims.

Daniels directly accused the late Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian ex President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, as well as the Iranian ministries of Oil, Trade and Defense and Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Talibans, of perpetrating the worst terrorist action in history inside the United States.

This action by the New York court adds to other measures taken by Washington to suffocate Iran economically.

It is not clear whether the plaintiffs will receive any type of payment; however, their lawyer Tom Mellon said his defense team may request the seizure of Iranian state assets abroad to pay compensation to the victims.

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