Today marks the 25th anniversary of al-Qaeda detonating nearly simultaneous bombs in front of the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Two hundred and twenty-four people died in the blasts, including 12 Americans, and more than 4,500 people were wounded.
In the aftermath of the attacks, over 900 FBI agents alone—and many more FBI employees—traveled overseas to assist in the recovery of evidence and the identification of victims at the bomb sites and to track down the perpetrators.
These attacks were soon directly linked to al Qaeda. Extraordinary efforts from federal and international partners led to the identification, arrest, and extradition to the United States of several members of the al Qaeda terrorist network for their role in the bombings.
Mohammed Sadeek Odeh and Mohammed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali were arrested in Kenya within 20 days of the bombings and rendered to the U.S. shortly thereafter. Both were convicted for their roles in the bombing and sentenced to life in prison in October 2001.
In September 1998, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim was arrested in Germany. He is currently serving a life sentence for stabbing a federal corrections officer in the eye while in prison after being charged in the embassy attacks.
Also in September 1998, Wadih el-Hage—a naturalized American citizen who had been living in Arlington, Texas—was arrested by the FBI for making false statements during questioning. After being indicted for his role in the bombings, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2001.
On November 4, 1998, Osama Bin Laden and several members of his network, including his military commander Muhammad Atef, were named in an indictment based on the investigation. Both have since been killed.
All told, more than 20 people have been charged in connection with the bombings. Seven are serving life sentences in U.S. prison.
At a ceremony today at the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that “our institution was scarred, and our country was newly awoken to the scourge of terror” by the bombings.
“I know that they chose to dedicate themselves to public service, that they died trying to make American and African lives better, and mostly – mostly – their lives made a difference,” Blinken told family members of victims. “…They made a lifetime’s worth of difference, and that’s an incredibly powerful, beautiful legacy to carry forward.”
“We also remember the hundreds of others who were killed on that day: the 34 Kenyans and 10 Tanzanians who were working for our embassies,” he said. “Our Foreign Service nationals are the lifeblood of every single mission we have anywhere in the world. Two-thirds of this institution is comprised of locally engaged staff. We couldn’t do our work without their partnership, without their friendship, and we saw that on display in Kenya and Tanzania 25 years ago.”
After the bombings, Blinken said, “most of our embassy staff returned to work as soon as they could.”
“That’s what we do. Seventy-nine people – 71 in Nairobi; 8 of them in Dar Es Salaam – still work at those embassies today, 25 years later. This, too, is an incredibly powerful statement about a shared commitment, a shared vision, a shared value for a world that’s a little bit more free, a little bit more open, a little bit more prosperous, a little bit more secure,” he said. “I can’t think of a better way to honor the scars, the sacrifices of that day than to carry forward the work that those we lost were engaged in – the work of diplomacy, the work of the United States, the work of connecting our country with other countries.”
