Time Trip – bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, 1998
* Osama bin Laden is Me suspected mastermind of two of the worst terrorist attacks ever made against the United States. The first occurred shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 7, 1998, when a massive explosion ripped through the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, toppling the building. Charred debris seared nearby cars, trees, and people. Minutes later, a bomb demolished the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The blast dismembered passersby and incinerated dozens of others in their seats aboard nearby buses. International rescue efforts wen on for days. At Nairobi’s city mortuary, dead bodies were piled six deep on the bloody floor. Combined, the explosions killed 257 people and wounded more than 5,000.
* Within hours of the bombings, Osama bin Laden was a suspect. Months earlier, bin Laden issued a fatwa, or religious command, aimed at the United States. He called on “every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded, to comply with God’s order and kill Americans and plunder their money wherever they find it.”
* In retaliation for the bombings, the United States launched military strikes against Bin Laden’s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. “Our target was terror,” said President Clinton vowed to bring those responsible for the embassy bombings to justice. ” No matter what it takes, we must find those responsible for these evil acts and see that justice is done,” he said.
* Six men connected to bin Laden have been arrested for the bombings. Their trial begins January 3, 2001.
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