Foreign Affairs

Kenya Marks 20 Years Since Al-Qaeda Slaughtered Hundreds In US Embassy Bombings

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Kenya mourned the lives lost in Al-Qaeda’s 1998 bombing Tuesday, remembering those killed in the attack on the 20th anniversary of their deaths.

“Twenty years ago today, evil showed its terrible face in Kenya and Tanzania,” Kenya’s U.S. Ambassador Robert Godec told a crowd gathered in Nairobi to remember the lives lost in the bombing, according to AFP.

Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998, in coordinated truck bombings. Two hundred and twelve people died and roughly 4,000 were wounded in Nairobi, according to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST). The Dar es Salaam bombing killed 11 and wounded 85.

The bombings, which were later traced to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, marked eight years since U.S. troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia.

Family members of victims came together Tuesday in Nairobi’s memorial park to mourn the loved ones they lost. The Kenyan and American national anthems were performed, and participants held candles while reading aloud the names of the ones they lost in the attack.

Dar Es Salaam was scheduled to have a Tuesday memorial service as well.

VIDEO: Kenya marks 20 years since Al-Qaeda’s back-to-back bomb attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam which killed 224 people, injuring around 5,000 #Aug7at20 pic.twitter.com/Y0ugcps8nk

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 7, 2018

Former President Bill Clinton ordered military strikes 13 days after the bombings, and three of Osama bin Laden’s training camps were hit. Osama bin Laden was killed in May 2011 by Navy SEAL Team 6 member Robert O’Neill.

Nine Al-Qaeda members indicted for the bombings have been captured, according to the ADST.

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