Victims of the 2000 USS Cole bombing received their first round of awards from a federal government fund, a $12.6 million payment that follows years of litigation and lobbying from their Miami attorney Andrew C. Hall.

Hall’s clients include 37 injured sailors and the families of 17 who died when al-Qaida suicide bombers attacked the ship, which was refueling at a Yemeni port. A federal judge in 2007 found the Sudanese government liable for helping the terrorists carry out the attack.