In the
1998 U.S. Embassy bombings (August 7, 1998) hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
embassies in the
East AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
n capital cities of
Dar es SalaamDar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre...
,
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
and
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters"...
,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
. The attacks, linked to local members of the
Egyptian Islamic JihadThe Egyptian Islamic Jihad , formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad (الجهاد الإسلامي and Liberation Army for Holy Sites...
brought
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
and
Ayman al-ZawahiriAyman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri is a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, and was the second and last "emir" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zummar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zummar to life imprisonment...
to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S.
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
placing bin Laden on its
Ten Most WantedThe FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949, during a game of Hearts between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to...
list.
Along with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996
Khobar Towers bombingThe Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company headquarters of Dhahran...
in
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
, and the 2000 attack on the
USS ColeThe second USS Cole is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, during World War II...
in
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
, the Embassy Bombing is one of the major anti-American terrorist attacks that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The bombings are widely believed to have been revenge for American involvement in the extradition, and alleged torture, of four members of
Egyptian Islamic JihadThe Egyptian Islamic Jihad , formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad (الجهاد الإسلامي and Liberation Army for Holy Sites...
(EIJ) who had been arrested in
AlbaniaAlbania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
in the two months prior to the explosions and extradited to Egypt.
In the
1998 U.S. Embassy bombings (August 7, 1998) hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
embassies in the
East AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
n capital cities of
Dar es SalaamDar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre...
,
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
and
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters"...
,
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
. The attacks, linked to local members of the
Egyptian Islamic JihadThe Egyptian Islamic Jihad , formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad (الجهاد الإسلامي and Liberation Army for Holy Sites...
brought
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
and
Ayman al-ZawahiriAyman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri is a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, and was the second and last "emir" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zummar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zummar to life imprisonment...
to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the U.S.
Federal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
placing bin Laden on its
Ten Most WantedThe FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list arose from a conversation held in late 1949, during a game of Hearts between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to...
list.
Along with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1996
Khobar Towers bombingThe Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, located near the national oil company headquarters of Dhahran...
in
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
, and the 2000 attack on the
USS ColeThe second USS Cole is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, during World War II...
in
YemenYemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is a country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia...
, the Embassy Bombing is one of the major anti-American terrorist attacks that preceded the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Motivation and preparation
The bombings are widely believed to have been revenge for American involvement in the extradition, and alleged torture, of four members of
Egyptian Islamic JihadThe Egyptian Islamic Jihad , formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad (الجهاد الإسلامي and Liberation Army for Holy Sites...
(EIJ) who had been arrested in
AlbaniaAlbania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
in the two months prior to the explosions and extradited to Egypt. On June 28, Ahmed Ibrahim Assyed al-Najr, believed to be the militant group's commander in Albania, was arrested along with compatriot Majed Mustapha. With the help of the CIA, they were extradited to Egypt. In July, Mohammad Hassan, leader of the Foundation for Rebirth of Islamic Heritage, was arrested in
TiranaTirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. It was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha and became Albania's capital city in 1920. The Municipality of Tirana lies on the river Ishëm, about inland and is located at in Tirana District, Tirana County...
and similarly extradited to Egypt. The following month, a communique was issued warning the United States that a "response" was being prepared to repay them for their interference.
The bombings were scheduled for August 7, the eighth anniversary of the arrival of American troops in Saudi Arabia, ostensibly a deliberate choice by
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
.
According to journalist
Lawrence WrightLawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, screenwriter, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law...
, the Nairobi operation was named after the Holy
KaabaThe Kaaba is a cuboidal building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The building predates Islam, and, according to Islamic tradition, the first building at the site was built by Abraham. The building has a mosque built around it, the Masjid al-Haram...
in
MeccaMecca , sometimes spelled Makkah is the holiest meeting site of the Islamic religion. The city is modern, cosmopolitan and whilst being closed to non-Muslims is nonetheless ethnically diverse.Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants...
; the Dar es Salaam bombing was called Operation al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, but "neither had an obvious connection to the American embassies in Africa. Bin Laden initially said that the sites had been targeted because of the "invasion" of Somalia; then he described an American plan to partition Sudan, which he said was hatched in the embassy in Nairobi. He also told his followers that the
genocide in RwandaThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by Hutus under the Hutu Power ideology. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana on 6 April through mid-July, at least 500,000...
had been planned inside the two American embassies."
Wright concludes that none of these claims made sense, and that bin Laden's actual goal was "to lure the United States into
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, which had long been called 'The Graveyard of Empires.'" According to a 1998 memo authored by
Mohammed AtefMohammed Atef was the alleged military chief of al-Qaida, although his role in the organisation was not well-known by intelligence agencies for years...
and seized by the FBI, around the time of the attacks, al-Qaeda had both an interest in and specific knowledge of negotiations between the Taliban and the American-led gas pipeline consortium
CentGasCentral Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. was a consortium formed in the 1990s to develop a project to build the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline to link Turkmenistan's abundant proven natural gas reserves with growing markets in Pakistan...
.
Attacks and casualties
On August 7, between 10:30 am and 10:40 am local time (3:30–3:40 am
WashingtonWashington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
time), suicide bombers in trucks laden with explosives parked outside the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and almost simultaneously detonated. In Nairobi, approximately 212 people were killed, and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85. Seismological readings analyzed after the bombs indicated energy of between 3–17 tons of high
explosive materialAn explosive material is a substance that either is chemically or otherwise energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material after initiation, usually accompanied by the production of heat and large changes in pressure . This event is called the explosion...
. Although the attacks were directed at American facilities, the vast majority of casualties were local citizens, 12 Americans were killed:
| Marine Sgt. Jesse N. Aliganga |
Marine Security Guard detachment |
| Julian Bartley |
Consul General |
| Jay Bartley |
son of Consul General Julian Bartley |
| Jean Dalizu |
Defense Attache's Office |
| Molly Hardy |
Administrative Office |
| Army Sgt. Kenneth Hobson II |
Defense Attache's Office |
| Prabhi Kavaler |
General Services Office |
| Arlene Kirk |
Military Assistance Office |
| Louise Martin |
Center for Disease Control |
| Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds |
Military Assistance Office |
| Michelle O'Connor |
General Services Office |
| Tom Shah |
Political Section |
In May 1998 a villa in Nairobi was purchased by one of the bombers for the purpose of accommodating bomb building in the garage. A beige coloured
Toyota DynaThe Toyota Dyna is a light truck for commercial use. In the Japanese market, the Dyna is sold alongside its twin called Toyoace. The original Toyoace of 1956 was an improvement over the Toyota SKB Truck.- RK60 ~ RK80 :...
Cargo truck was then purchased as the bomb vehicle. In June 1998, KK Mohamed rented House 213 in the Illala district of Dar es Salaam, about four miles from the U.S. Embassy. A white Suzuki Samurai was used to haul bomb components hidden in rice sacks, from House 213. A 1987 Nissan Atlas refrigeration truck was then purchased as the bomb delivery vehicle. KK Mohamed employed a welder to build a seat for batteries and install six metal bars in the bed of the truck, to better accommodate the bomb.
In both Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Mohammed Odeh supervised construction of two massive, 2,000-pound destructive devices. The Nairobi bomb was made of 400 to 500 cylinders of TNT (about the size of soda cans), aluminum nitrate, aluminum powder and detonating cord. The explosives were packed into some twenty specially designed wooden crates that were sealed and then placed in the bed of the trucks. Abdel Rahman ran a wire from the bomb to a set of batteries in the back of the truck cab and then to a detonator switch beneath the dashboard. The Dar es Salaam bomb used a slightly different construction: the TNT was attached to fifteen
oxygenOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
tanks and gas canisters, and was surrounded with four bags of
ammonium nitrateThe chemical compound ammonium nitrate, the nitrate of ammonia with the chemical formula NH4NO3, is a white crystalline solid at room temperature and standard pressure...
fertilizer and some sand bags to tamp and direct the blast.
While driver Abdullah Azzam drove the Mitsubishi Canter quickly the Nairobi embassy, local security guard Benson Okuku Bwaku was warned to open the gate immediately – and fired upon when he refused to comply. As Bwaku radioed to Marine Post One for backup, the truck detonated.
Following the attacks, a group calling itself the "Liberation Army for Holy Sites" took credit for the bombings. American investigators believe the term was a cover used by
Egyptian Islamic JihadThe Egyptian Islamic Jihad , formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad (الجهاد الإسلامي and Liberation Army for Holy Sites...
, who had actually perpetrated the bombing.
Aftermath and international response
In response to the bombings, U.S. President
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
ordered Operation Infinite Reach, a series of
cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
strikes on targets in
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
and
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
on August 20 1998, announcing the planned strike in a primetime address on American television.
In Sudan, the missiles destroyed the
Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factoryThe Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum North, Sudan was constructed between 1992 and 1996 with components imported from the United States, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, India, and Thailand....
, where 50% of Sudan's medications for both people and animals were manufactured. The Clinton Administration claimed that there was ample evidence to prove that the plant produced chemical weapons, but a thorough investigation after the missile strikes revealed that the intelligence was unreliable.
Investigations into the embassy bombings were conducted by the FBI and Kenyan and Tanzanian authorities. A list of suspects was drawn up and several men were charged for their involvement in the bombings.
The embassies were heavily damaged, and the one in Nairobi, Kenya had to be rebuilt. It is now located across the road from the UNWFP office, for security purposes. A few months after the attacks and subsequent American missile strikes in Afghanistan, the American energy company Unocal withdrew its plans for a gas pipeline through Afghanistan.
The indictment
The current indictment charges the following twenty-one people for various alleged roles in this crime.
| Muhammad Atef |
killed in Afghanistan in 2001 |
| Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah |
killed in Pakistan in 2006 |
| Wadih el Hage |
serving life without parole since 2001 |
| Mohamed Sadeek Odeh Mohammed Saddiq Odeh is one of the four former al-Qaeda members sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 for their parts in the 1998 United States embassy bombings. The others are Mohamed Rashid al-Owhali, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, and Wadih el Hage. At the time of this writing, all four are in the...
|
serving life without parole since 2001 |
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'OwhaliMohamed Rashed Daoud Al-Owhali is one of the four former al-Qaeda members sentenced in 2001 to life without parole for their parts in the 1998 United States embassy bombings. The others are Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, and Wadih el Hage. At the time of this writing, all four are in...
|
serving life without parole since 2001 |
| Khalfan Khamis Mohamed Khalfan Khamis Mohamed , a Tanzanian national, is one of numerous al-Qaeda suspects who were indicted in 1998, and one of the four who were convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 2001, for their parts in the 1998 United States embassy bombings...
|
serving life without parole since 2001 |
| Khalid al Fawwaz |
held in the UK since 1998 |
| Ibrahim Eidarous An Egyptian militant, Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous is alleged to have led the London-based chapter of al-Jihad. He was held in the custody of the United Kingdom from 1999, fighting extradition to the United States, where he was wanted in connection with the 1998 United States embassy bombings...
|
held in the UK since 1999. Died in prison in 2008. |
| Adel Abdel Bary The Egyptians Adel Mohammed Abdul Almagid Abdel Bary and Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous have been in the custody of the United Kingdom since 1999, fighting extradition to the United States, where they are wanted in connection with the 1998 United States embassy bombings...
|
held in the UK since 1999 |
Mamdouh Mahmud SalimMamdouh Mahmud Salim Mamdouh Mahmud Salim Mamdouh Mahmud Salim ( (b. 1958) is an alleged co-founder of the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda. He was arrested on 16 September 1998 near the German town Munich...
|
arrested in 1998, held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp |
Ahmed Khalfan GhailaniAhmed Khalfan Ghailani is an alleged member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. He was indicted in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list from its inception in October 2001...
|
arrested in 2004, held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp |
Mustafa Mohamed FadhilMustafa Mohamed Fadhil is a citizen of Kenya and Egypt indicted in the United States for his part in the bombings of their embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. He is accused in particular of preparing TNT and loading that TNT plus other explosives into the truck which was...
|
|
Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
|
at large |
| Ayman al Zawahiri |
at large |
| Saif al Adel |
at large |
| Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah is an Egyptian national wanted by the United States for his part in the 1998 American embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and especially Nairobi, Kenya...
|
unknown since attack |
| Anas al Liby Nazih Abdul-Hamed Nabih al-Ruqai'i alias Anas al-Liby , a Libyan, is under indictment in the United States for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings....
|
at large |
Fazul Abdullah MohammedFazul Abdullah Mohammed is a suspected member of al-Qaeda, sometimes purported to be the leader of their East African presence. Mohammed was born in Moroni, Comoros Islands and has Kenyan as well as Comorian citizenship...
|
at large |
Ahmed Mohamed Hamed AliAhmed Mohammed Hamed Ali is an Egyptian national wanted by the United States government in connection with the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi.-Aliases:-Life before the bombings:...
|
at large |
| Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam was a Kenyan terrorist conspirator, wanted in the United States for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania...
|
killed in Pakistan in 2009 |
| Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan was a fugitive wanted in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was alleged to have purchased the Toyota and Nissan trucks used in the attacks, flying out of Nairobi to Karachi, Pakistan five days before the assault was launched...
|
killed in Pakistan in 2009 |
Later developments
On June 1, 2007, the
USS ChafeeUSS Chafee is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in United States Navy.She is named for Senator John Lester Hubbard Chafee , a Marine veteran of Guadalcanal....
fired its deck guns at suspected hideoutsThe Bargal raid occurred in June 2007 around the town of Bargal in the northern province of Bari, in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland....
of an
Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda , alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida, is an Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988 and late 1989 and early 1990...
suspect by the name of
Abdullah Ahmed AbdullahAbdullah Ahmed Abdullah is an Egyptian national wanted by the United States for his part in the 1998 American embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and especially Nairobi, Kenya...
who is one of the listed as responsible for the bombings, in the
PuntlandPuntland is a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe , whose leaders declared it an autonomous state in 1998. A third of Somalia's population lives in the province, which likewise represents about a third of the nation's geographical area. Unlike neighbouring Somaliland, Puntland does...
region of
SomaliaSomalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...
. It has not been reported if the shelling was successful or not.
See also
- National Geographic Seconds From Disaster episodes
External links