Major attacks linked to Al-Qaeda
ISLAMABAD—As US President Barack Obama announces Osama bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan, here is a list of major attacks carried out or inspired by bin Laden’s al-Qaeda group since 1993.
February 26, 1993: An explosion in the basement of the World Trade Center towers in New York kills six people and injures around 1,000. The blast causes major damage to the buildings’ foundations; some 55,000 people are working in the towers at the time.
November 13, 1995: A car bomb explodes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in front of a building of the Saudi National Guard where US military advisers work. Five US soldiers and two Indian nationals are killed.
June 25, 1996: A truck bomb at a US military base in Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia, kills 19 US nationals and wounds 386.
August 7, 1998: Near-simultaneous bomb attacks against US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam kill 224 people, most of them Africans, and injure over 5,000.
October 12, 2000: A suicide attack on the destroyer USS Cole, one of the most modern ships in the United States’ arsenal, kills 17 US Marines and injures 38 in the Yemeni port of Aden.
September 11, 2001: Two hijacked US airliners crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, which burn and collapse shortly afterwards. A third hijacked plane crashes into the Pentagon outside Washington, while a fourth comes down in rural Pennsylvania. The attacks kill around 3,000 people in all.
April 11, 2002: A suicide truck bombing at a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba kills 21 people, including 14 Germans.
October 12, 2002: Bombings on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali kill 202 people, many of them Australians. The attacks are carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian extremist group inspired by Al-Qaeda.
May 12, 2003: A triple suicide attack on a residential complex in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia kills 35 people, amongst them nine Americans.
May 16, 2003: Five almost simultaneous bombs explode in restaurants and hotels frequented by foreigners in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, killing more than 30 people.
November 15 and 20, 2003: A Turkish cell of Al-Qaeda sets off truck bombs at two synagogues, the British consulate and a British bank in Istanbul, killing 63 people, including the British consul, and leaving hundreds injured.
March 2, 2004: Around 180 people are killed in a series of attacks on pilgrims in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Karbala.
March 11, 2004: Four commuter trains in and around Madrid are hit by explosions that kill 191 people and injure around 2,000 during morning rush hour in an attack authorities said was inspired by Al-Qaeda.
July 7, 2005: Four British Muslim suicide bombers detonate devices on London’s public transport system, killing 56 people as they destroy underground trains and a double-decker bus.
July 23, 2005: A series of suicide bombings hit the Egyptian tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 68 people.
November 9, 2005: Three suicide attacks on hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman claim 60 lives.
April 24, 2006: Twenty people are killed and 90 injured as suicide bombers hit the Egyptian coastal resort of Dahab.
August 14, 2007: More than 400 people are killed when four truck bombs explode in northern Iraq in an attack US authorities link to Al-Qaeda.
December 11, 2007: Two suicide blasts in Algiers kill at least 41 people, including 18 UN staffers, three of them foreign nationals. The attacks are claimed by the Maghreb branch of Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
September 17, 2008: An attack on the US embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, kills 16 people.
September 20, 2008: A huge explosion brings down a large section of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing at least 60 people.
December 25, 2008: A Nigerian man is arrested after a failed attempt to detonate a bomb on board a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit.
November 24, 2010: A suicide car bomber kills 23 Shiites at a religious procession in Yemen, an attack linked to Al-Qaeda.
