Memories of 1998 Blasts Linger After Al-Qaeda Leader Death
June 13, 2011, 9:09 AM EDTBy Flavia Krause-Jackson
(Updates with analyst comment in 15th paragraph, and comment from Kenyan who witnessed the bomb blast in 18th.)
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Caleb Magiia, a 47-year-old Tanzanian, remembers as if it were yesterday the morning 13 years ago when a “big bomb sound” sent hundreds running and crying through the streets of his capital and introduced al- Qaeda to the world.
Between 10:30 a.m. and 10:40 a.m., near-simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, Kenya, on Aug. 7, 1998, killed 224 people, including 12 U.S. citizens. In Dar es Salaam, the 12 dead were all Tanzanians.
“It was the first time that al-Qaeda was mentioned,” Magiia said. A young man then, now he is married with three children and working at the hotel Kilimanjaro, where he was at the door to greet the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the weekend. “We were not used to all that attention,” he said. “Now everyone knows our country.”
News that the man held responsible, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the suspected head of al-Qaeda in East Africa, was killed last week at a checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia, rippled through the city yesterday and coincided with a visit from the top U.S. diplomat. On May 2, President Barack Obama announced Osama bin Laden, the terror group’s global leader, was shot dead by U.S. commandos in a raid on his house in Abbottabad, near Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.
For diplomats, the killing of both al-Qaeda leaders, barely a month apart after years of pursuit, proved cathartic even with the knowledge that the fight against terrorism isn’t over.
Enormous Destruction
“The death of the leader of al-Qaeda is as significant for East Africa and the greater horn of Africa as the death of Osama bin Laden is for its impact on al-Qaeda as a whole,” Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said in an interview in Dar es Salaam. “He caused enormous destruction in two major signature al-Qaeda events.”
Yesterday, Clinton said a silent prayer and laid white roses at a memorial for the victims of the bombings. Many of the local embassy staff that survived the attack still work at the new fortified embassy, located a mile away from the old site.
“Some of you lost your friends and loved ones, and all Americans grieved with you then and we have not forgotten your loss, and we have not forgotten our pledge to seek justice against those who commit such atrocities,” Clinton told embassy staff and survivors of the attacks.
Checkpoint
Mohammed and one other man were killed by Somali forces when the pickup truck in which they were traveling failed to stop at a checkpoint after straying into a government-controlled district of Mogadishu, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Still, his killing wasn’t pure luck, the official said.
The killing on June 11 was previously reported by Agence France-Presse, which said Mohammed was traveling with a South African passport, $40,000 in cash and several mobile phones. Al- Shabaab, a regional grouping affiliated to al-Qaeda, acknowledged Mohammed’s death, AFP said, citing a leader of the organization who asked not to be identified.
Mohammed was indicted by a New York district court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website list of the most wanted terrorists. The U.S. had offered a $5 million dollar reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
“This guy has carried out substantial attacks” in numerous countries, including Israel, and has “frustrated people for 15 years,” Douglas Paal, a former senior CIA analyst, said in a telephone interview.
Treasure Trove
Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that while he didn’t have specific knowledge of the case, the killing of Mohammed probably would lead to an additional treasure trove of information on the al- Qaeda network and its operatives in East Africa or elsewhere.
“One has the impression that al-Qaeda is now thoroughly penetrated” and scattered, “making it hard for them to plan future attacks,” Paal said.
The death of Mohammed, who brought expertise to Somalia on coordinating suicide bombings and attacking with improvised explosive devices, creates an opportunity for Somali security forces to gain ground, Rasid Abdi, a Horn of Africa analyst, with International Crisis Group said.
Government forces, supported by more than 9,000 African Union troops participating in a UN-backed mission known as Amisom, control sections of Mogadishu, while Islamic insurgents hold most of the country’s south and central regions.
“This disarray in al-Shabaab and the fact they have lost their senior figure, it is a chance for Amisom to push into new territory,” Abdi said by phone from Nairobi today.
‘Lucky to Be Alive’
The explosion at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, in 1998 sprayed glass and shrapnel at Stephen Wambua who was a block away walking to work. The marketing executive, now 39, said he ran for five minutes before looking back at cloud of black smoke rising from the city center.
“I don’t feel scared of another attack because the future of al-Shabaab is crumbling,” Wambua said, sitting on a bench at a memorial park for the bombing victims. “I feel sentimental about this place. It reminds me I’m lucky to be alive.”
Magiia, who remembers meeting former president Bill Clinton twice in Dar es Salaam, wants his country to be known for more than al-Qaeda: “Tanzania is a peaceful country,” he said.
--With assistance from Sarah McGregor in Nairobi and Roger Runningen in Washington. Editors: Ann Hughey, Gregory Mott, Philip Sanders, Karl Maier
To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Lusaka, Zambia at fjackson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
