JERUSALEM (AP) -- An Israel-based rights group has launched a lawsuit, seeking to block the release of $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets in the United States following the U.S.-led nuclear deal with Tehran.

The Shurat HaDin Law Center says it's acting on behalf of two dozen U.S. citizens who won more than a billion dollars in judgments again Iran in American courts but who were never paid.

The center says it filed the injunction Wednesday at a New York district court.

The Americans were victims of attacks perpetrated from 1995 to 2006 by Iran-backed militant groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The center says releasing frozen Iranian funds under the nuclear deal would deprive the Americans of the only leverage they have to make Iran pay.

By AP