Everything about 1998 United States Embassy Bombings totally explained
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.
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). In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.
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. 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. 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).
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 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.
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." 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.
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. A few months after the attacks and subsequent American missile strikes in Afghanistan, the American energy company withdrew its plans for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.
The indictment
The current indictment charges the following twenty-one people for various alleged roles in this crime.
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 hasn't been reported if the shelling was successful or not.
Further Information
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