The August 1998 bombings of Afghanistan and Sudan (code-named Operation Infinite Reach by the United States) were American cruise missile strikes on terrorist bases in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan on August 20, 1998. The attack was in retaliation for the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people (including 12 Americans) and injured 5,000 others.

Al-Shifa plant bombing and controversy

The missiles were launched from US warships in the Red Sea. Several hit the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, which the United States claimed was helping Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the embassy attacks, build chemical weapons. One man was killed and ten were wounded in Sudan by the strike.

Then United States National Security Council advisor Richard Clarke stated that intelligence existed linking Osama bin Laden to Al-Shifa's current and past operators, namely the Iraqi nerve gas experts and the National Islamic Front in Sudan.^[1] The government of Sudan demanded an apology from both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations; but none has been given, since U.S. intelligence apparently still believes the plant had ties to chemical weapons. According to testimony by William Cohen, "...the U.S. intelligence community obtained physical evidence from outside the al-Shifa facility in Sudan that supported long-standing concerns regarding its potential role in Sudanese chemical weapon efforts that could be exploited by al Qaeda."^[2]

Officials later acknowledged, however, "that the evidence that prompted President Clinton to order the missile strike on the Shifa plant was not as solid as first portrayed. Indeed, officials later said that there was no proof that the plant had been manufacturing or storing nerve gas, as initially suspected by the Americans, or had been linked to Osama bin Laden, who was a resident of Khartoum in the 1990s."^[3]

Unfortunately the factory was Sudan's primary source of pharmaceuticals, covering the majority of the Sudanese market. Werner Daum (Germany's ambassador to Sudan 1996–2000) wrote an article in which he estimated that the attack "probably led to tens of thousands of deaths" of Sudanese civilians.^[4] The U.S. Bureau of Intelligence and Research wrote a report in 1999 questioning the attack on the factory, suggesting that the connection to bin Laden was not accurate; James Risen reported in the New York Times:

"Now, the analysts renewed their doubts and told Assistant Secretary of State Phyllis Oakley that the C.I.A.'s evidence on which the attack was based was inadequate. Ms. Oakley asked them to double-check; perhaps there was some intelligence they had not yet seen. The answer came back quickly: There was no additional evidence. Ms. Oakley called a meeting of key aides and a consensus emerged: Contrary to what the Administration was saying, the case tying Al Shifa to Mr. bin Laden or to chemical weapons was weak."^[5]

The Chairman of El Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries, who is critical of the Sudanese government, more recently told reporters, "I had inventories of every chemical and records of every employee's history. There were no such [nerve gas] chemicals being made here."^[6] Sudan has since invited the U.S. to conduct chemical tests at the site for evidence to support its claim that the plant might have been a chemical weapons factory; so far, the U.S. has refused the invitation to investigate. Nevertheless, the U.S. has refused to officially apologize for the attacks, suggesting that some privately still suspect that chemical weapons activity existed there.^[3]

Attack on camps in Afghanistan

Satellite image showing an al-Qaeda training camp in Zhawar Kili

About 75 cruise missiles landed in Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan at four militant training camps around Khost and Jalalabad: three camps in the Jarawah area near Khost, one of which, El Farouq, trained primarily Afghan Arabs, and Al Badr camp 10 miles to the west which also trained Afghan Arabs and was run by bin Laden.^[7] The Khost camp, Zawhar Kili, was reportedly the scene of a meeting of "senior leaders of Islamic militant and terrorist groups linked to bin Laden," and was regarded by Pakistani intelligence as a "summit" convened by bin Laden.^[8] Whether bin Laden would definitely attend was uncertain to the Americans, but the attack was made partly in hopes that bin Laden would attend and be killed.^[9] After the attack, the CIA heard that bin Laden had been at Zawhar Kili but had left some hours before the missiles hit.^[10] As to the precise length of time between when bin Laden is thought to left the camp, and when the missile impacts occurred, there is some difference of opinion depending on information sources.

According to Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, the Al Badr camp controlled by bin Laden and Muawai camps run by the Pakistani Harkat-ul-Mujahideen^[11] were the main targets. However, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was training to fight Indian troops in Kashmir, not Americans.^[12] According to Rashid, 20 Afghans, seven Pakistanis, three Yemenis, two Egyptians, one Saudi and one Turk were killed.

U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the attacks in a TV address, saying the Khost camp was "one of the most active terrorist bases in the world,"^[13] adding that "I want the world to understand that our actions today were not aimed against Islam" which he called "a great religion."^[14]

Some, however, including bin Laden, saw this as a way of attracting attention away from the Lewinsky scandal. On August 17, three days prior to the missile strike, President Clinton admitted in a nationally televised presidential address^[15] that he had an inappropriate relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. This address followed President Clinton's grand jury testimony earlier that day. An additional motive for the strikes could have been to communicate some form of indirect warning to India and Pakistan, in hopes of discouraging those two countries from their new nuclear testing policies, opposed by many Western countries.

According to the Washington Times, a new book by Times reporter John Diamond states that the arrest of Mohammed Sadeeq Odeh, one of the Kenyan embassy bombers, ruined the effectiveness of the US missile strikes in Afghanistan. According to Diamond, Odeh was arrested in Karachi, Pakistan on August 7, 1998 after being discovered with a false passport while traveling to meet with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Bomb residue was then discovered on Odeh's luggage and US authorities were notified. Alerted to the arrest, bin Laden canceled the meeting which meant that the camps targeted by the cruise missiles were mainly empty the day of the US strike. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken custody of Odeh a week after his arrest, but unaware of the planned US military strike, was unable to give a warning that bin Laden and his troops had probably changed their locations and movement plans.^[16]

Reaction

References

External links

• U.S. missiles pound targets in Afghanistan, Sudan; Clinton: 'Our target was terror', CNN, August 21, 1998
• President Clinton's speech on the attacks, August 20, 1998
• President Clinton's speech after testifying to the Grand Jury , August 17, 1998

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