Aftermath at the Nairobi embassy.

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).^[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]

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).

Aftermath and international response

Wreckage from the Nairobi bombing.

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.

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 Oil Company of California|Unocal withdrew its plans for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.^[6]

The indictment

The current indictment^[7] 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 has not been reported if the shelling was successful or not. ^[10]

See also

• National Geographic Seconds From Disaster episodes

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
• Documentary of the Plan

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