Key attacks carried out by al-Qaeda
BETWEEN 1993 and 2000, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network was held responsible by the United States for a string of attacks including: an October 1993 van explosion at New York’s World Trade Centre that killed six people; a June 1996 fuel truck bomb at a US compound in Khobar in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American soldiers and wounded almost 400 people; August 1998 truck bombs at US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans; and the October 2000 bombing of US warship Cole in Aden harbour that killed 17 sailors.
Sept 11th, 2001:
Nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four passenger planes and crash two into New York’s World Trade Centre twin towers, which collapse two hours later, and a third into the Pentagon, headquarters of the US department of defence in Washington. The fourth plunges into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers, aware of the fate of the other planes, storm the cockpit. Almost 3,000 people in the twin towers and on the planes are killed.
Oct 7th, 2001:
Osama bin Laden taunts “infidel” US president George Bush, saying in a video shown by Al Jazeera television the US will not live in peace until Palestinians can do the same.
Early 2002:
Wall Street Journalreporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Pakistan and later beheaded by al-Qaeda. His murder is videotaped and published.
April 11th, 2002:
A truck explodes near El Ghriba synagogue on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 14 Germans, five Tunisians and a Frenchman. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the attack.
Oct 12th, 2002:
Bombs explode in the Kuta Beach nightclub district of Bali in Indonesia, killing 202 people. Members of the banned Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah, linked to al-Qaeda, admit responsibility for the attack.
Nov 28th, 2002:
Three suicide car bombers blow up a hotel popular with Israelis in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa, killing 15 people.
On the same day, two missiles narrowly miss an Israeli Arkia Boeing 757 carrying 261 passengers on take-off from Mombasa airport. Al-Qaeda says it is responsible.
May 12th, 2003:
At least 35 people, including nine Americans, are killed by al-Qaeda bombers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Co-ordinated blasts in Casablanca, Morocco, kill 45 people, including 13 bombers, and wound about 60.
Aug and Sept 2003:
A suicide truck bomb wrecks the Canal Hotel, which served as UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including UN envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello. In the following months and years, al-Qaeda carries out numerous attacks in Iraq under its local leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and in Saudi Arabia, including one in which up to 30 people in a Riyadh residential compound are killed.
March 11th, 2004:
A co-ordinated series of bombs rips through commuter trains in Madrid, killing more than 200 people and wounding 1,500. The Spanish government initially blames Basque terrorists, but al-Qaeda later claims responsibility.
July 7th, 2005:
Four suicide bombers kill 52 people in attacks on three London underground trains and a bus. In September, al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, says al-Qaeda carried out the bombings to strike at “British arrogance”.
April 11th, 2007:
Suicide bombs kill 33 people in central Algiers. In December, two blasts kill at least 41 people, including 17 UN staff, at UN offices in Algiers.
2001-2011:
Bin Laden is seen on numerous video and audio tapes, taunting the West and boasting of his achievements, and claiming responsibility for bombings and killings. In a March 2010 audio tape, he threatens to kill any Americans taken prisoner by al-Qaeda if accused 9/ 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is put to death by the US authorities.
Tapes in October call for action on climate change and for Muslims around the world to help victims of the Pakistan floods.
In January 2011 he says that the release of French hostages in Niger depends on France’s soldiers leaving Muslim lands.
April 28th, 2011:
A bomb kills 15 people including 10 foreigners in Marrakesh, Morocco, in an attack that bears the hallmark of Islamist militants. The previous week, men claiming to be Moroccan members of Aqim (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) had appeared on the internet threatening to attack Moroccan interests.
– Reuters/PA/Wikipedia