On August 7, 1998, Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, successively occurred two huge ** incidents, resulting in serious damage to two buildings and the loss of countless innocent lives.
When the news spread, the first thing that came to many people's minds was not an accident, but a long-planned, targeted attack. Because these two incidents are not only coincidental in time, but even the first place is the same, that is, the US embassy abroad.
It was undoubtedly a well-planned, targeted attack.
Who attacked the U.S. Embassy and got the world's attention? Embassies are diplomatic missions that cannot be attacked even if the two countries are at war. However, in recent decades of warfare, the act of targeting embassies has usually been the detention of embassy personnel or the conduct of civilianism in front of the embassy.
Just a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was growing in power, and they had taken so much wealth from the Soviet Union that few countries could make them feel threatened.
However, it was at this time that the US embassy was attacked. So, who is so bold? After sorting out and analyzing the incident, the US intelligence community found that there were many people involved in this incident, but after an in-depth investigation, it was found that all the evidence pointed to Osama bin Laden, who was behind the planning of the attack.
As a result, the US ** Intelligence Agency listed it as one of the top ten most wanted criminals.
Speaking of bin Laden, we are all familiar with him, he often became the focus of attention in the late 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, although many people do not know who he is, but they have heard his name.
For the Americans, the name goes deep into the marrow, and the hostility between the two sides is so deep. Bin Laden was born in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in 1957, to a builder who made money in both the Saudi oil and construction industries, so although bin Laden's family had more than 60 family members, they did not have a hard time.
Osama bin Laden was a normal young man, and after college, he made a fortune in oil and construction, and his life seemed bright, but the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 changed the course of his life.
bin Laden led his family to Afghanistan to oppose the Soviet invasion, at this time the United States and bin Laden had a very good relationship, the two sides were in a honeymoon period, bin Laden established a training base in Afghanistan, and the United States ** intelligence bureau provided funds and assistance.
In 1991, bin Laden's relationship with the United States took a radical turn. The year before, Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait with more than 100,000 troops in an attempt to annex it.
The United States rallied a group of countries to confront Saddam, a move that angered bin Laden. Iraq and Kuwait are both Arab countries, and in the eyes of the Arabs, this is an intra-Arab strife.
Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, he was an Arab, and as a result, he developed a deep resentment with the United States. Bin Laden was well prepared to confront the Americans, and he set up several commercial companies to raise funds and set up a number of training bases in Afghanistan to train armed men.
Osama bin Laden recruited many anti-Westerners and asked them to learn a variety of skills at these training bases, including grappling, how to use light, and how to use them
In April 1994, bin Laden, who had been active in Sudan, was deported from the country after his citizenship was revoked by Saudi Arabia, his home country, and he became stateless.
In modern society, stateless people are often considered half-dead. Osama bin Laden put all the blame for this on the United States and its allies who aided the abuse.
Beginning in 1992, he launched frequent attacks against the United States, and as his resentment of the United States deepened and his own power grew, the scale of the attacks grew.
In December 1992, the Yemen Hotel of the United States Army in Somalia took place**. And in February 1993, bin Laden struck again, blowing up the World Trade Center in the United States.
Osama bin Laden's team rented a van, loaded it with a bomb and parked it in the underground garage of the World Trade Center in New York, then detonated the bomb.
An earth-shattering ** left a bottomless pit on a piece of land 60 meters long and 30 meters wide. Smoke enveloped the building, making it impossible to connect and the power was paralyzed.
People panicked, there were no elevators available, and they had to climb down from the nearly 100-story tall buildings. The sheer scale of the terrorist attack, combined with its occurrence on the U.S. mainland, caused a huge shock.
Through the unremitting efforts of the US side, it was finally found out that the initiator of the incident was none other than Osama bin Laden. That same year, another Pakistani named Kassi fled after shooting and killing two employees in front of the CIA, and the investigation revealed that the main messenger was still bin Laden.
Although this incident is not large, the attack on the door of the CIA is undoubtedly a demonstration against the United States. Since then, bin Laden has attacked the United States more frequently, such as the attack on the US military camp in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in 1995, and the US Air Force residence in Zahran, Saudi Arabia, the following year.
But none of this caused as much of a stir as the unprecedented terrorist attacks of 1998.
In 1996, the United States threatened Sudan** to hand over bin Laden by freezing Sudanese assets, and bin Laden was forced to flee to Afghanistan. This escape was an important event for bin Laden and one of the important reasons that directly prompted bin Laden to attack the US Embassy.
Laden considered deeply in the selection of targets for the attack, choosing two US embassies in eastern Africa. The two embassies are very far from bin Laden's home base, Afghanistan, which is considered a relatively safe area by the United States.
bin Laden's goal was to create a stir by blowing up embassies in areas that the United States considered safe, and hoped to succeed in attacking the United States. On the morning of 7 August 1998, staff members of the United States Embassy in Kenya went to work as normal.
At this time, bin Laden sent assailants rushed to the embassy in trucks filled with explosives. However, the two attackers found the embassy closed and guarded by security guards.
Bin Laden's attackers, unable to enter the target location, chose to attack the security guards at the gate and draw explosives from the car. ** Flames and smoke were triggered in an instant, and buildings around the truck were affected, especially the nearest U.S. Embassy.
*Caused a large number of people**, many of whom were buried under the rubble of the collapsed buildings, and the situation was very tragic. At this time, the news of the Kenyan embassy** had not reached the United States, and the Tanzanian embassy was attacked.
* There were almost no survivors near the location, and the U.S. Embassy was blown up beyond recognition, but fortunately, this time the power of ** was slightly less, and it only hit the U.S. Embassy, and the staff inside was not affected too much.
Two ** incidents resulted in 225 deaths and more than 4,000 injuries. After the incident, the United States was in an uproar, and no one dared to launch such a large-scale attack on the United States.
Immediately afterwards, the "al-Qaeda" organization claimed responsibility for this, the United States was furious about this, bin Laden's attacks and demonstrations against the United States became more frequent, and this incident caused widespread concern in the international community and made the United States feel disgraced.
The angry US Clinton launched a missile attack on a training camp in Afghanistan, codenamed "Infinite Extension," and openly launched an encirclement and suppression operation against bin Laden.
In addition to this, the United States has attacked a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan that it believes supports al-Qaeda. In this attack, the United States launched a total of 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles, but when the missiles hit the target, bin Laden was no longer in the camp, and the attack by the United States only destroyed the training camp.
Bin Laden gained support from many in the attack, including the official Iraqi news agency, which called bin Laden"Hero of Arabia and Islam"。At that time, there was a deep hatred between Saddam Hussein and the United States, which also explains why Iraq made such comments.
In addition to Saddam, there are also anti-Americans or people who have enemies with the United States who have not criticized bin Laden's actions. This has sparked reflection among American politicians, who have realized that the United States has also done many wrong things, including Israel"Mistakenly fried"、"Mishit"Attacking facilities in other countries under the pretext of attacking.
The fate of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden is like the downed Flight 655 and the bombing of the Chinese embassy by the United States.
The difference between bin Laden's illegal armed forces and the US state behavior is only a formality, but this open encirclement and suppression has deepened bin Laden's hatred of the United States. In bin Laden's mind, the destruction of the United States became an eternal dream, and the failure of the 1998 operation to completely eliminate al-Qaeda left an even greater hidden danger.
Osama bin Laden's large-scale terrorist attacks spread his name around the world, won the admiration of anti-Americans, and attracted a large number of people to him.
Bin Laden recruited an Egyptian named Mohammed Atta, who was highly educated and had strong anti-American sentiments. Bin Laden chose it as "9."11 raids "leader.
On September 11, 2001, an even more devastating incident occurred when four American planes were hijacked, three of which crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and one crashed.
This incident aroused great attention from the United States, and they began to go all out to hunt down bin Laden. The above content is from Beijing Satellite TV's "Archives - Hunting for bin Laden".