Terrorist attacks on the United States' embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi

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Set in Dar es Salaam
Location in Nairobi
Debris of the US Embassy in Nairobi

The terrorist attacks on the United States' embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi were a series of simultaneously detonated car bombs that were detonated on August 7, 1998 in Dar es Salaam , the Tanzanian seat of government, and in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi .

attacks

On August 7, 1998 at half past ten in the morning, two assassins brought a tanker truck with an explosive device weighing around 1000 kg, consisting of several hundred trotyl explosive devices connected with detonating cord , which were made with a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder (see ammonal ) in front of the US embassy in Nairobi. were surrounded to explode. The facade of the building was torn down and a neighboring building collapsed. 213 people, including twelve Americans, died in the attack and 4,500 were injured. Nine minutes later, another bomb exploded in front of the American embassy in Dar es Salaam. The force of the explosion was mitigated by an accidentally parked water tanker. Eleven people died and 85 were injured in this attack. The CIA had previously received an indication of an attack on the US embassy in Nairobi almost a year, however, had assessed the informant as unreliable.

reaction

The UN Security Council condemned the attacks on August 13, 1998 in resolution 1189 .

One day after the attacks, the CIA received a notice that Osama bin Laden was in a training camp near the eastern Afghan city of Chost . US President Clinton agreed to a military strike and on August 20, 1998, 75 cruise missiles were fired at the training camp during Operation Infinite Reach . Several of the cruise missiles crashed over Pakistani territory, killing two people , according to former ISI boss Hamid Gul . The figures for those killed in the Afghan training camp range from 6 to 22 victims. Osama bin Laden left the camp several hours before the impact, after possibly having received a warning from the Pakistani side.

At the same time, 13 cruise missiles were fired at the Ash Shifa drug factory near the Sudanese city of Khartoum , which was suspected of producing chemical weapons. The factory was completely destroyed. The CIA had found traces of EMPTA in soil samples , which is a possible starting material in the production of the chemical warfare agent VX and for which there is no other known commercial application. However, it later turned out that the factory was only producing drugs and no further traces of EMPTA were found.

Three days earlier, on August 17, 1998, President Clinton admitted in front of television cameras that he had an "inappropriate relationship" with intern Monica Lewinsky . Clinton came under pressure and was accused from various quarters that the military strike served to distract from the Lewinsky affair . The debate was additionally fueled by the feature film Wag the Dog , released in late 1997 , in which a fictional US president starts a war with Albania in order to divert attention from domestic political problems. Before the 9/11 Commission , the parties later stated that this decision had been correct on the basis of the existing evidence and the 9/11 Commission found no reason to doubt this information.

Prosecution

Nairobi assassin survivor Mohammed al-Owhali, a 21-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia , was arrested shortly after the attacks. After the attack, Mohammed al-Owhali called a telephone number in Yemen to which calls from Osama bin Laden could be proven.

Since the attacks were directed against the United States, four people were charged there. In May 2001, the Afghan Taliban government refused to extradite Osama bin Laden, who was also a suspect. The four defendants were each sentenced in 2001 to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

In November 2010, the Tanzanian Ahmad Chalfan al-Ghailani was convicted by a US civil court. He was found guilty of " conspiracy to destroy US property" by the jury . He was acquitted on a further 285 counts, including conspiracy to murder US citizens, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and murder.

The public prosecutor described him as one of the masterminds and accused him of close ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Accordingly, he bought the truck and explosives used in the attack in Tanzania. The defense argued that he did not know what he was buying. He was deceived by al-Qaeda. He would have had no direct knowledge of the attacks. In addition, he was tortured by CIA agents after his arrest.

He was sentenced to life in prison on January 25, 2011 with no chance of pardon .

A suspected mastermind of the attacks and al-Qaeda leader, Anas al-Liby (actually Nazih Abd al Hamid al-Ruqhay) was discovered in Tripoli on October 5, 2013 in a joint operation by the US military ( Delta Force ), the CIA and the FBI picked up and in American custody; he is to be tried in an American court, but has since passed away. The Libyan government said in a statement that it knew nothing about the operation and did not consent to it, and that al-Liby was to be brought before a Libyan court. According to high-ranking, anonymous American government officials, the Libyan government had approved the operation in principle weeks before.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lawrence Wright : Death Will Find You . Al-Qaeda and the road to September 11th . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-12986-7 , p. 364.
  2. ↑ Lawrence Wright: Death Will Find You. Al-Qaeda and the road to September 11th . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-12986-7 , p. 366.
  3. ↑ Lawrence Wright: Death Will Find You. Al-Qaeda and the road to September 11th . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-12986-7 , p. 370.
  4. ^ Resolution 1189 (1998). UN Security Council, August 13, 1998, accessed April 2, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Steve Coll : Ghost Wars. The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 . Penguin Books, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-14-303466-7 , p. 409.
  6. ↑ Steve Coll: Ghost Wars. The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 . Penguin Books, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-14-303466-7 , p. 410.
  7. ↑ Staff Statement No. 6, The Military. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, March 23, 2004, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Lawrence Wright: Death Will Find You. Al-Qaeda and the road to September 11th . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-12986-7 , p. 380.
  9. ↑ Steve Coll: Ghost Wars. The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 . Penguin Books, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-14-303466-7 , p. 408.
  10. ↑ Steve Coll: Ghost Wars. The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 . Penguin Books, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-14-303466-7 , p. 412.
  11. ↑ Responses to Al Qaeda's initial assaults. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, July 22, 2004, accessed April 2, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Lawrence Wright: Death Will Find You. Al-Qaeda and the road to September 11th . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-12986-7 , p. 374.
  13. ^ First Guantánamo civil trial: acquittal on most points in: Tages-Anzeiger of November 18, 2010.
  14. ↑ Guantánamo prisoner has to go to prison for life in: NZZ Online from January 25, 2011
  15. ↑ Life imprisonment for ex-Guantanamo prisoners in: Spiegel Online from January 25, 2011
  16. ↑ Kimberly Dozier, Abdi Guled, Jason Straziuso, Associated Press: US Forces Hit Extremists Behind E. Africa Attacks. ABC News, October 5, 2013, accessed October 6, 2013 .
  17. ↑ David D. Kirkpatrick: Man Sought in '98 Attacks on Embassies Is Seized. The New York Times, October 5, 2013, accessed October 5, 2013 .
  18. ↑ بيان صحفى بشأن اختطاف أحد المواطنين الليبيين ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pm.gov.ly
  19. ↑ Michael S. Schmidt and Eric Schmitt: US Officials Say Libya Approved Commando Raids. The New York Times, October 9, 2013, accessed October 10, 2013 .