1998 United States embassy bombings

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Aftermath at the Nairobi embassy.
Aftermath at the Nairobi embassy.

In the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings (August 7, 1998), hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous car bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks, linked to local members of the al Qaeda terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden, brought bin Laden and al Qaeda to international attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list.

Along with the Mohamed Elhajouji 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, the Embassy Bombing is one of the major anti-American terrorist attacks that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Contents

[edit] Attacks and casualties

Car bombs in vehicles adjacent to the embassies were detonated almost simultaneously before 10:45 am local time (3:45 am Washington time).[1] In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed (including at least 12 Americans) and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.[2]

Although the targets of the attacks were US government facilities, most of its victims were African civilians: about 200 Kenyans were killed at the embassy in Nairobi, and 11 Tanzanians were killed in Dar es Salaam.[2]

[edit] Motivation

According to journalist Lawrence Wright, the Nairobi operation was named after the Holy Kaaba in Mecca; the Dar es Salaam bombing was called Operation al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, but "neither had an obvious connection to the American embassies in Africa. Bin Laden .... initially said that the sites had been targeted because of the `invasion` of Somalia; then he described an American plan to partition Sudan, which he said was hatched in the embassy in Nairobi. He also told his followers that the genocide in Rwanda had been planned inside the two American embassies."

Wright concludes that none of these claims made sense, and that bin Laden's actual goal was "to lure the United States into Afghanistan, which was already being called 'The Graveyard of Empires.'"[3] According to a 1998 memo authored by Mohammed Atef and seized by the FBI, around the time of the attacks, al-Qaeda had both an interest in and specific knowledge of negotiations between the Taliban and the American-led gas pipeline consortium CentGas.[4] The bombings also happened at an symbolic date: "August 7th, 1998, was the eighth anniversary of the arrival of American troops in Saudi Arabia in 1990", an issue of Osama bin Laden's greatest concern (Rohan Gunaratna 2002: Inside Al Qaeda, page 46).

[edit] Aftermath and international response

Wreckage from the Nairobi bombing.
Wreckage from the Nairobi bombing.

In response to the bombings, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered Operation Infinite Reach, a series of cruise missile strikes on targets in Sudan and Afghanistan on August 20, 1998, announcing the planned strike in a primetime address on American television.

In Sudan, the missiles destroyed the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant, where 50% of Sudan's medications for both people and animals were manufactured. The Clinton Administration claimed that there was ample evidence to prove that the plant produced chemical weapons, but a thorough investigation after the missile strikes revealed that the intelligence was unreliable[5].

Investigations into the embassy bombings were conducted by the FBI and Kenyan and Tanzanian authorities. A list of suspects was drawn up and several men were charged for their involvement in the bombings.

The embassies were heavily damaged, and one had to be rebuilt.

Twenty days after the bombings, Uday Hussein (son of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein) praised Osama Bin Laden as "an Arab and Islamic hero."[6] Later, Richard A. Clarke, a top Clinton administration counterterrorism official, stated that one source reported that bin Laden had met with Iraqi officials who "may have offered him asylum" after the embassy bombings.[7]

In Afghanistan, then under the control of the Taliban, a court declared on November 20, 1998 that Osama bin Laden was "a man without a sin" in regard to the bombing.[citation needed] A few months after the attacks and subsequent American missile strikes in Afghanistan, the American energy company [Oil Company of California|Unocal] withdrew its plans for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.[8]

[edit] The indictment

The current indictment[9] charges the following twenty-one people for various alleged roles in this crime.

Muhammad Atef killed in Afghanistan in 2001
Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah killed in Pakistan in 2006
Wadih el Hage serving life without parole since 2001[10]
Mohamed Sadeek Odeh serving life without parole since 2001[10]
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali serving life without parole since 2001[10]
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed serving life without parole since 2001[10]
Khalid al Fawwaz held in the UK since 1998
Ibrahim Eidarous held in the UK since 1999
Adel Abdel Bary held in the UK since 1999
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim arrested in 1998, held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp[11]
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani arrested in 2004, held in theGuantanamo Bay detention camp[11]
Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil probably held, but may still be loose
Osama bin Laden at large
Ayman al Zawahiri at large
Saif al Adel at large
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah unknown since attack
Anas al Liby at large
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed at large
Ahmed Mohamed Hamed Ali at large
Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam at large
Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan at large

Mohamed Elhajouji

[edit] Latest Developments

On June 1, 2007, the USS Chafee fired its deck guns at suspected hideouts of an Al-Qaeda suspect by the name of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah who is one of the listed as responsible for the bombings, in the Puntland region of Somalia. It has not been reported if the shelling was successful or not. [12]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ U.S. Embassy Bombings. U.S. Department of State website. Retrieved on 2007-08-04.
  2. ^ a b Online NewsHour - African Embassy Bombings. PBS.org. Retrieved on 2007-08-04.
  3. ^ Wright, Lawrence, Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright, NY, Knopf, 2006, p.272
  4. ^ Brisard, Jean-Charles (5 June 2002). Al-Qaida monitored U.S. negotiations with Taliban over oil pipeline. Salon.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
  5. ^ Barletta, Michael. “Chemical Weapons in the Sudan: Allegations and Evidence.” Nonproliferation Review. Monterey Institute of International Studies 6:1 (1998): 5-48. <http://www.intellnet.org/documents/800/050/850.htm>.
  6. ^ How Bad Is the Senate Intelligence Report? Very bad., Weekly Standard, 25 September 2006
  7. ^ The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 134
  8. ^ [hhttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E3DD1E3BF936A35751C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink Business Digest]. New York Times (5 December 1998). Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
  9. ^ Copy of indictment USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
  10. ^ a b c d Four embassy bombers get life, CNN, 21 October 2001
  11. ^ a b Press release about 14 Guantanamo inmates, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
  12. ^ From MSNBC.com

[edit] External links