Terror Strikes Again
Attacks on U.S. embassies prompt new fears--and a vow of retribution
First, Bill Barr heard a "thump." The American diplomat was meeting with other officials inside the ambassador's office on the fifth floor of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Ten seconds later, Barr said, there was "a hell of a blast. The windows blew in but the frames blew out." A Kenyan businessman ran out of a building a block away and looked skyward: "All you could see," he said, "was thousands of files flying through the air. It was nothing but paper, dust, and darkness." And blood.
At virtually the same moment--10:40 a.m. local time on August 7--a twin car bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy some 450 miles away in Dar es Salaam, capital of the neighboring East African country of Tanzania. Together, the bombings killed at least 81 people and injured more than 1,700 others. Among the dead were at least eight Americans in Nairobi and five local employees of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam.
Both embassies, though still standing, are structurally damaged and will probably have to be torn down. The Ufundi Cooperative House, a five-story office building that took the brunt of the Nairobi blast, was immediately reduced to a 50-foot-high pile of twisted metal and concrete, with many bodies underneath.
President Clinton vowed retribution. "We will use all the means at our disposal to bring those responsible to justice, no matter what or how long it takes," he said in the White House Rose Garden a few hours after the blasts.
But investigators are still trying to determine exactly what happened, beginning with the mysterious thump heard by Barr, who is director of the U.S. Information Service in Kenya. He thinks it may have been a grenade thrown at the embassy. Eyewitnesses also said there was gunfire outside the Nairobi embassy just before the big explosion. Julius Koyiet, a Kenyan Christian preacher, was grazed by a bullet that made two holes--entry and exit--in the arm of his loose shirt. He told U.S. News and Kenyan police that he saw four men of "Arab" appearance jump out of a yellow van parked behind the embassy, and one of them fired wildly into the crowd. "I thought it was a robbery because it was next to the bank," Koyiet said.
The Arab connection is extremely tenuous. Since there were no credible claims of responsibility for the bombings, and no specific warnings were received in advance, the U.S. State Department refused to speculate about who the bombers might be. But terrorism experts said that the most likely suspects are well-established terrorist groups from outside Kenya and Tanzania who chose those countries because of lax security and, possibly, their proximity to the Middle East. "This appears to have been a very well coordinated, very well planned attack--clearly not the work of amateurs," said National Security Council spokesman P. J. Crowley.
Since the end of the cold war deprived terrorists of Soviet funding and havens in Eastern Europe, incidents of international terrorism have actually been on the wane. In 1996, there were 296 acts of international terrorism--a 25-year low, according to the State Department. Last year, the number rose slightly, to 304.
Now, the frightening question is whether the embassy bombings augur a new wave of anonymous attacks on soft American targets overseas. "When you have a multiple bombing like this, it suggests a campaign," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert who consults for Rand. Since a truck bomb killed 19 Americans at the Khobar Towers military housing complex in Saudi Arabia two years ago, the U.S. government has tightened security at many military bases and embassies. But each time that security is improved at one set of targets, another set becomes comparatively more vulnerable (box, Page 17).
Terrorists also are less likely than ever before to take responsibility for their acts. This is a radical departure from classic Palestinian terror of the 1970s, when numerous groups would often claim responsibility for the same bombing or hijacking in order to attract attention to their cause. Today, a public claim merely invites retaliation, a lesson drummed in by the U.S. bombing of Libya in 1986.
Terrorism by proxy. Another trend that adds to the confusion around the embassy bombings is the "subcontracting of terror," said Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi may have pioneered this tactic by paying the Japanese Red Army to carry out terror strikes in the 1980s. Today, a Saudi Arabian millionaire named Osama Bin Ladin is suspected of financing terror around the world, but his hand is hard to trace. "It has become difficult to speak of traditional [terrorist] organizations," said Jenkins. "Rather we deal with universes of like-minded fanatics from which emerge ad hoc conspiracies, or whose members provide the soldiers for a terrorist leader. But we don't necessarily find an organization with initials and an established modus operandi."
One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, ranked the most likely suspects in the embassy bombings as Bin Ladin, the Egyptian terror group Islamic Jihad, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Though he is now in hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan, Bin Ladin still is believed to control a personal fortune estimated at $250 million and a network of perhaps 3,000 people, with fundamentalist recruitment centers and guesthouses in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. He combines financial muscle with religious fanaticism: In February, during the last American standoff with Iraq, Bin Ladin and a coalition of Islamic extremist groups issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, saying that "to kill the Americans and their allies--civilian and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it."
According to a February 23 memorandum prepared by the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, "these fatwas are the first from these groups that explicitly justify attacks on American civilians anywhere in the world." The U.S. government remains concerned that Bin Ladin may still be obtaining funds from Saudi Arabia; the White House plans to discuss those ties when the Saudi crown prince visits Washington this fall. As recently as May, the United States also asked Bin Ladin's hosts and protectors in Afghanistan, the Taliban, to turn him over--but to no avail.
Double-duty embassy. Bin Ladin previously had lived in Sudan for several years but was forced to leave there by the Sudanese government, acting under U.S. pressure, in 1996. Because of a deteriorating security situation in war-torn Sudan, the U.S. Embassy staff from that country has been operating out of the Nairobi embassy since February 1996--providing a possible motive for Bin Ladin to strike in Kenya.
Islamic Jihad, a group banned in Egypt, also had threatened this month to retaliate against the United States for helping to extradite Islamic extremists from Albania to Cairo to stand trial. "We inform the Americans . . . of preparations for a response which we hope they read with care, because we will write it, with God's help, in a language they will understand," the group said.
Hezbollah, which was created in Lebanon with Iranian backing, has been fighting with growing intensity and sophistication against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. But it denies undertaking terrorist activities in other countries, and there is no public evidence linking it to the embassy bombings.
One of the most worrisome aspects of the bombing in Dar es Salaam is that, according to the State Department, the car containing the explosive apparently was parked inside the embassy compound--meaning that it had somehow passed by security guards. Security may have been lax because neither Kenya nor Tanzania had been considered a dangerous location. Thomas Pickering, the under secretary of state for political affairs, acknowledged after the bombings that neither embassy would meet current security guidelines for construction.
The Nairobi embassy, built in 1981, is at an intersection and has no security fence in front, along busy Moi Avenue, though it is protected by an 8-foot-high steel fence on the other three sides. The embassy in Dar es Salaam is a 44-year-old former private mansion leased by the United States since 1980. It was once the Israeli chancery but was expropriated by the government of Tanzania when it broke relations with Israel after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In 1988, the State Department spent $775,000 to upgrade security, including installation of guardhouses at two entrances and construction of 9-foot-high masonry walls around the triangular compound.
The first step in the investigation will be to comb the wreckage for clues to the types of bombs and vehicles used. At the same time, U.S. agents will review National Security Agency telephone intercepts, monitor bank records, check visa and passport records, and work with local investigators. All the while, they will be hoping against a repeat of the investigation into the still unsolved June 1996 attack at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Probing that attack has been intensely frustrating for the FBI. The Saudi authorities controlling the case have said that the perpetrators were Saudi citizens, but they have denied the FBI critical access to suspects and evidence. And they have not answered questions about who may have bankrolled and supported the bombers. Many regard Iran as the most likely sponsor. But Saudi Arabia is trying to mend a rocky relationship with Iran and may be reluctant to publicize any findings. "Because Dhahran remains unsolved, it serves as an inspiration to other [terrorist] groups," suggests Larry Johnson, former deputy director of the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. "The only good news is that . . . Tanzania and Kenya are likely to be much more cooperative than the Saudis."
The American response this time was quick, a reflex hardened by three decades of fighting terrorism. Within minutes of learning about the bombings at about 3:45 a.m. in Washington, the State Department had activated FEST--its Foreign Emergency Support Team, charged with coordinating America's response to terrorist attacks overseas. Calls went to emergency operations centers at the FBI, CIA, and Pentagon; top deputies were soon meeting to determine the next steps. By 5:30 a.m., President Clinton was awake and being briefed by Sandy Berger, his national-security adviser. "I have some news to pass on to you," Berger began somberly.
Airborne surgeons. While security alerts went out to 260 U.S. diplomatic posts worldwide, marines were dispatched from the Persian Gulf to help secure the sites. One C-141 transport plane left Ramstein Air Base in Germany for Nairobi carrying an interagency disaster squad, complete with a surgical team and medical supplies. Another C-141 flew later in the day from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Nairobi, carrying antiterrorism experts, communications personnel, and FBI agents to help in the investigation.
At the president's regular 9 a.m. security briefing, Berger showed Clinton maps and satellite photographs of the embassy compounds and explained the latest theories on what happened and how the bombers had succeeded in detonating the blasts. Clinton "peppered" Berger with questions and, immediately afterward, began phoning U.S. officials and diplomats and African leaders to coordinate the American response. Later, Clinton appeared in the Rose Garden to offer sympathy to the families of the deceased. "These acts of terrorist violence are abhorrent, they are inhuman," he said.
Among the injured was U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Prudence Bushnell, who was cut by flying glass on the hands and lip, requiring a few stitches. She had been meeting outside the embassy, at Cooperative Bank House, with Kenya's trade minister, Joseph Kamotho. He said that when they heard the first, smaller blast, she asked him whether it was construction noise.
Because the explosions took place at midmorning, the streets around both embassies were busy. In Nairobi, people begin lining up at 6 a.m. each working day for visas to visit the United States. Buses and taxis also line up outside the building. After the bombings, a local Stagecoach bus was parked in front of the embassy with its windows blown out. In the back was a teenager's twisted body, his lifeless eyes staring out the rear door.
Rescue efforts were aided by scores of local volunteers, and hundreds of people quickly surrounded the wreckage of the Ufundi building next to the embassy. A shout went up from the crowd every time a live person was pulled from the rubble. At the city's three main hospitals, even people with the slightest medical expertise were asked to help. One American woman said she stitched up a victim, something she had never done before. Other injured people were brought in private cars on makeshift stretchers and given IVs on the sidewalk outside one hospital.
A dozen embassy workers lingered at the scene hours after the explosion, trying to find out what happened to people inside. They were hugging, crying, and staring blankly up at the building.
Embassy bombings in Africa A coordinated terrorist bombing occurred at midmorning on August 7 at the United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The embassy in Nairobi is located at a busy downtown intersection, while the Dar es Salaam embassy is about 2 1/2 miles from the city center. Both were badly damaged. [Map is not available.]
Nairobi 1. a bomb-laden van explodes in the Ufundi House parking lot behind the U.S. Embassy. 2. The five-story Ufundi building, home to several small businesses and secretarial college, is leveled. 3. The entire back side of the five-story U.S. Embassy is destroyed. Eyewitnesses report gunfire outside before the blast. 4. The 25-story Cooperative Bank, also adjacent to the Ufundi building, is severely damaged.
Casualties: Scores dead (at least eight Americans); more than 1,600 wounded
Central Nairobi. The impact of the explosion is felt throughout the surrounding area. Windows shatter up to 10 blocks away.
Dar es Salaam 1. A car bomb explodes within the walls of the U.S. Embassy compound, according to State Department officials. 2. Several Tanzanian guards and embassy employees are killed in the blast. Nearly two thirds of the three-story embassy is destroyed.
Casualties: At least half a dozen dead (no Americans); scores wounded
In harm's way: recent attacks Americans and U.S. institutions have long been favorite targets for terrorists. Some notable attacks in the past 15 years:
Lebanon, June 1998. Rocket-propelled grenades explode near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. No injuries.
Saudi Arabia, June 1996. A truck bomb kills 19 U.S. troops living at a base near Dhahran.
Scotland, December 1988. A terrorist bomb destroys a Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, killing 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
Greece, April 1986. Four people are killed in an explosion aboard a TWA passenger jet approaching Athens.
Germany, April 1986. A blast in a West Berlin disco kills two and injures 150.
Rome and Vienna, December 1985. Airport attacks at U.S. and Israeli airport check-in desks kill 16.
Mediterranean Sea, October 1985. Terrorists aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship kill an American and toss his body overboard.
Germany, August 1985. A car bomb at an American base in Frankfurt kills two and injures 20.
El Salvador, June 1985. A machine gun attack at a cafe kills 13, including six Americans.
Spain, April 1985. An explosion at a restaurant near an American air base in Madrid kills 18 Spaniards.
Lebanon, October 1983. A car bomb kills 241 U.S. troops at the Beirut airport.
Lebanon, April 1983. A bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut kills 63.
This story appears in the August 17, 1998 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.