1992 Aden hotel bombings
1992 Aden hotel bombings | |
---|---|
Part of the Bombings | |
Weapons | Bombs |
Deaths | 2 |
Injured | 7 |
Perpetrators | Al-Qaeda |
The 1992 Aden hotel bombings were two terrorist bomb attacks carried out by al-Qaeda on December 29, 1992, that were intended to kill United States Marines in Aden, Yemen. It is considered to be the first attack on the United States by Al-Qaeda, though the objective was mostly unsuccessful.
Attacks
On December 29, 1992, the
A second bomb detonated prematurely at the Aden Mövenpick Hotel, where other United States Marines had also been staying, and three people were injured, none of whom were Americans.[1] At the time, the bombings did not give the United States cause for concern because no Americans had died.[2] In April 1993, intelligence believed that Osama bin Laden had a role in the attacks.[3] Immediately after the bombings, the US announced the withdrawal of troops from Yemen, the place it was using to support operations in Somalia.[4]
Motives
Al-Qaeda intended this first attack against the United States as part of a larger campaign. At the time, the United States had been intervening in
In 1998, bin Laden would take credit for the bombings, claiming, "The United States wanted to set up a military base for US soldiers in Yemen, so that it could send fresh troops to Somalia… The Arab mujaheddin related to the Afghan
References
- ^ Edward F. Mickolus and Susan L. Simmons, Terrorism, 1992-1995: A Chronology of Events and A Selectively Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies and Indexes in Military Studies (Westport, Conn): Greenwood Press, 1997), 250.
- ^ a b Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, Revised Edition (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), p. 147.
- ^ Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc. (New York: Free Press, 2001), 176.
- ^ a b Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 198.
- ^ Phil Hirschkorn, "Scant Evidence Shown to Link bin Laden to GI Deaths in Somalia". CNN. 20 April 2001.