1998 United States embassy bombings
| 1998 United States embassy bombings | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location |
Nairobi, Kenya Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
| Coordinates | 1°17′S 36°49′E / 1.283°S 36.817°E and 6°48′S 39°17′E / 6.800°S 39.283°E |
| Date | 7 August 1998 10:30 a.m. – 10:40 a.m. EAT (UTC+3) |
| Target | United States embassies |
|
Attack type
|
Truck bombs |
| Deaths | 224 |
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
More than 4,000 |
| Perpetrators | al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad |
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on 7 August 1998, in which over 200 people were killed in nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African cities, one at the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the other at the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
The attacks, which were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and their terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, to the attention of the American public for the first time, and resulted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placing bin Laden on its ten most-wanted fugitives list. The FBI also connected the attack to Azerbaijan, as 60 calls were placed via satellite phone by bin Laden to associates in the country's capital Baku.Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah were credited for being the masterminds behind the bombings.
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 for an alleged series of murders in Egypt in the two months prior to the attacks. 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 co-operation of the United States; the four men were accused of participating in the assassination of Rifaat el-Mahgoub, as well as a later plot against the Khan el-Khalili market in Cairo. The following month, a communique was issued warning the United States that a "response" was being prepared to "repay" them for their interference. However, the 9/11 Commission Report claims that preparations began shortly after bin Laden issued his February 1998 fatwa.
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