1998 United States embassy bombings

Aftermath at the Nairobi embassy.

The 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings occurred on August 7, 1998. Hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks, linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list.

Motivation and preparation

A Nissan Atlas truck, similar to that used in Dar es-Salaam

The bombings are widely believed to have been revenge for American involvement in the extradition, and alleged torture, of four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) who had been arrested in Albania in the two months prior to the explosions.^[1] Between June and July, Ahmad Isma'il 'Uthman Saleh, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar, Shawqi Salama Mustafa Atiya and Mohamed Hassan Tita were all renditioned from Albania to Egypt, with the cooperation of the United States, accused of participating in the assassination of Rifaat el-Mahgoub, as well as a later plot against the Khan el-Khalili market in Cairo.^[2] The following month, a communique was issued warning the United States that a "response" was being prepared to repay them for their interference.^[3][4]

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 bin Laden's actual goal was "to lure the United States into Afghanistan, which had long been called 'The Graveyard of Empires.'"^[5] 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.^[6]

In May 1998 a villa in Nairobi was purchased by one of the bombers for the purpose of accommodating bomb building in the garage. Ahmad Salim Swedan purchased a beige Toyota Dyna truck in Nairobi, and a 1987 Nissan Atlas refrigeration truck in Dar es-Salaam. Six metal bars were used to form a "cage" on the back of the Atlas, to accommodate the bomb.^[7]

In June 1998, KK Mohamed rented House 213 in the Illala district of Dar es Salaam, about four miles from the U.S. Embassy. A white Suzuki Samurai was used to haul bomb components hidden in rice sacks, from House 213.

In both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Mohammed Odeh supervised construction of two massive, 2,000-pound destructive devices. The Nairobi bomb was made of 400 to 500 cylinders of TNT (about the size of soda cans), aluminum nitrate, aluminum powder and detonating cord. The explosives were packed into some twenty specially designed wooden crates that were sealed and then placed in the bed of the trucks. Abdel Rahman ran a wire from the bomb to a set of batteries in the back of the truck cab and then to a detonator switch beneath the dashboard.^[7] The Dar es Salaam bomb used a slightly different construction: the TNT was attached to fifteen oxygen tanks and gas canisters, and was surrounded with four bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and some sand bags to tamp and direct the blast.^[8]

The bombings were scheduled for August 7, the eighth anniversary of the arrival of American troops in Saudi Arabia, ostensibly a deliberate choice by Osama bin Laden.^[9]

It is also believed that a similar attack was planned for the American Embassy in Kampala, Uganda but was foiled when Uganda's Intelligence intercepted an explosives laden truck in the Eastern town of Iganga. This claim however has not been acknowledged.

Attacks and casualties

Wreckage from the Nairobi bombing.

On August 7, between 10:30 am and 10:40 am local time (3:30–3:40 am Washington time), suicide bombers in trucks laden with explosives parked outside the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and almost simultaneously detonated.^[10] In Nairobi, approximately 212 people were killed, and an estimated 4,000 wounded; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.^[11] Seismological readings analyzed after the bombs indicated energy of between 3–17 tons of high explosive material.^[12] Although the attacks were directed at American facilities, the vast majority of casualties were local citizens, 12 Americans were killed:^[13]

While driver Azzam drove the Mitsubishi Canter quickly toward the Nairobi embassy along with Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali,^[14] local security guard Benson Okuku Bwaku was warned to open the gate immediately – and fired upon when he refused to comply. Al-Owhali threw a stun grenade at embassy guards before exiting the vehicle, and running off.^[15] Osama bin Laden later offered the explanation that it had been his intention to leap out and shoot the guards to clear a path for the truck, but that he had left his pistol in the truck and subsequently ran off.^[14] As Bwaku radioed to Marine Post One for backup, the truck detonated.^[15]

The explosion demolished a full half of the Embassy building and also shattered windows in the Co-operative House, a neighboring 21-floor office skyscraper.

Meanwhile, the Atlas truck in Dar es Salaam was being driven by Hamdan Khalif Alal, known as "Ahmed the German" due to his blonde hair, a former camp trainer who had arrived in the country only a few days earlier.^[7]

Following the attacks, a group calling itself the "Liberation Army for Holy Sites" took credit for the bombings. American investigators believe the term was a cover used by Egyptian Islamic Jihad, who had actually perpetrated the bombing.^[16]

List of fatalities

Aftermath and international response

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 factory, 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.^[17]

The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1189 condemning the attacks on the embassies.

The embassies were heavily damaged, and the one in Nairobi, Kenya had to be rebuilt. It is now located across the road from the UNWFP office, for security purposes. A few months after the attacks and subsequent American missile strikes in Afghanistan, the American energy company Unocal withdrew its plans for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.^[18]

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.^[19]

The indictment

The current indictment charges the following twenty-one people for various alleged roles in this crime.^[20]

References

External links

• Rewards for Justice - Most Wanted Terrorists
• US State Department website about attacks
• Transcripts of Sentencing Phase of Embassy Bombers Trial
• Primer on the attacks