1993 World Trade Center bomb attack

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The bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City on February 26, 1993 killed six people and injured over 1,000 people. The explosion in the underground car park of the World Trade Center was caused by a urea nitrate bomb in a transport vehicle. Four of the perpetrators were arrested in 1994, and two more were arrested in 1997.

Course of events

Destruction within the buildings
Rescue workers in front of the building complex after the explosion
Graphic representation of the damage in the respective levels

At noon on February 26, 1993, a bomb was detonated in the underground car park of the World Trade Center. At that time, a total of six Islamist terrorists from the al-Qaeda terrorist network set off around 700 kilograms of the explosive urea nitrate in a van. The explosion was intensified by pressurized gas containers with hydrogen . The explosion killed six people who were in the underground levels at the time of the detonation. Over 1,000 other people were injured. Some of the underground floors were particularly badly damaged. This resulted in one of the largest rescue operations in the city of New York, with around 45% of the fire service personnel on duty being called to this damaging event. Although the detonation of the bomb was violent, the building was able to withstand the explosion. Only the interior was badly damaged, but not the load-bearing statics of the two 110-story skyscrapers .

Legal processing

Shortly after the bombing, the Egyptian cleric Sheikh Umar Abd ar-Rahman and nine of his supporters were arrested; In 1994 Mahmud Abouhalima , Mohammad Salameh , Nidal A. Ayyad and Ahmad Ajaj were convicted of the attack. The main witness was FBI informant Emad Salem , who had prior knowledge of the bomb- making activities among the convicted. In 1997 and 1998 Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil were also convicted of the bombing.

In October 1995, Umar Abd ar-Rahman was sentenced to life imprisonment for "a conspiracy to blow up buildings". His lawyer during the trial against him was Lynne Stewart . At the age of 66, she was sentenced to 28 months in prison in 2005 (the prosecution had asked for 35 years). On appeal from the public prosecutor's office, she was finally sentenced to ten years in prison for aiding and abetting terrorism for violating the more stringent conditions for Abd ar-Rahman. However, on December 31, 2013, Stewart was released early. This was justified with her cancer.

More suspects

In addition to the convicted, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abdul Rahman Yasin are suspected of having contributed to the crime. However, a legal processing of these suspicions has not yet taken place.

Consequences and aftermath

The names of the six victims were also engraved on the September 11, 2001 memorial .

After his arrest, one of the main bombers, the Kuwaiti Ramzi Ahmed Yousef , admitted that it was actually the terrorists' plan to bring down the north tower with an even larger amount of explosives and to let it fall onto the south tower. Not enough explosives were available for this. The subsequent destruction would have assumed enormous proportions, large parts of the area around the twin towers would have been destroyed. Had this plan been successfully implemented, a very high number of victims of up to 100,000 dead was suspected at the time.

Despite the considerable tightening of security precautions in both New York and the USA, future attacks within the USA could not be prevented: as early as 1995, a bomb was detonated in front of an office building in Oklahoma City , albeit without an Islamist background. The whole house was destroyed.

In 2001 the World Trade Center was attacked again in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and completely destroyed.

Movie

Web links

Commons : World Trade Center bombing 1993  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Tom Hays, Larry Neumeister: In Sentencing Bombers, Judge Takes Hard Line. In: The Seattle Times , May 25, 1994.
  2. Ralph Blumenthal: Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart Bomb Used in Trade Center Blast. In: The New York Times , October 28, 1993.
  3. ^ Benjamin Weiser: Driver Gets 240 Years in Prison for Bombing of Trade Center. In: The New York Times , April 4, 1998.
  4. ^ Fried, Joseph P .: Sheik Sentenced to Life in Prison in Bombing Plot. In: The New York Times. January 18, 1996, accessed November 20, 2008 .
  5. Jury convicts two in blast Trade Center. In: CNN. November 12, 1997, accessed November 20, 2008 .
  6. Hays, Tom and Larry Neumeister: In Sentencing Bombers, Judge Takes Hard Line. In: The Seattle Times / AP. May 25, 1994. Retrieved November 20, 2008 .
  7. Martina Groß: The Lynne Stewart case. In: Deutschlandfunk , September 6, 2011 and manuscript of the broadcast , September 7, 2011. Repeat on March 5, 2013 with MP3 to listen to
  8. Lynne Stewart, Ex-Lawyer Convicted In Terror Case, Seeks Release From Prison Due To Cancer. December 7, 2013, accessed April 22, 2019 .
  9. Context of 'March 20, 1993: FBI Connects KSM to WTC Bombing'. In: History Commons
  10. ^ David Kohn: The Man Who Got Away. In: 60 Minutes , February 11, 2009 (English).
  11. FBI 100 First Strike: Global Terror in America. In: FBI , February 26, 2008.

Coordinates: 40 ° 42 ′ 42 "  N , 74 ° 0 ′ 49"  W.