TEHRAN- An Iranian court has ordered that the U.S. must pay $420 million in damages to survivors of a terrorist strike carried out by the U.S. military in Iran’s central Tabas Desert in 1980.

The Tehran Legal Court of International Relations that issued the verdict on Thursday said Washington has been sentenced for the crimes committed during the invasion of Tabas in the failed “Operation Eagle Claw,” which led to the death of civilians.

In the terrorist operation U.S. soldiers randomly targeted civilian bus passengers and drivers going by.

The latest court decision was made in response to a lawsuit filed by 13 terror attack survivors and one hostage captured by U.S. soldiers in the Desert operation.

Washington was ordered by the court to pay $140 million in “material and moral” damages to the plaintiffs as well as $280 million in ‘punitive damages.”

The decision determined that the U.S. government must compensate the survivors with a total of $420 million.

The U.S. began the clandestine military operation on April 25, 1980, with the goal of airlifting U.S. embassy personnel detained in Tehran, but a sandstorm struck and the operation faced an ill-fate. Eight U.S. servicepersons were killed as a helicopter crashed into a transport aircraft.

The U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force were the units that took part in the operation.

The Tabas incident happened during President Jimmy Carter’s administration, and many feel it had a significant factor in Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election.

Every year, Iran recalls the incident as a symbol of the failure of U.S. conspiracies against the Islamic Republic.