1992 Aden hotel bombings

Last updated
1992 Aden hotel bombings
Part of the al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
LocationAden Mövenpick Hotel and Gold Mohur Hotel in Aden, Yemen
Coordinates 12°48′23″N45°1′42″E / 12.80639°N 45.02833°E / 12.80639; 45.02833 and 12°46′9.12″N44°59′25.08″E / 12.7692000°N 44.9903000°E / 12.7692000; 44.9903000
Date29 December 1992;32 years ago (1992-12-29)
Target United States Marines en route to Somalia
Attack type
 Bombings
Weapons Bombs
Deaths2
Injured7
Perpetrators Al-Qaeda
No. of participants
2

On 29 December 1992, a series of bombings targeted two hotels which housed United States Marines en route to deploy in Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope in Aden, Yemen. Orchestrated by Islamic Jihad in Yemen senior leader Jamal al-Nahdi, the bombs were planted at a restaurant in the Gold Mohur Hotel and the parking lot of the Aden Mövenpick Hotel, though the bomb at the latter hotel exploded prematurely.

Contents

No U.S. Marines were harmed in the attacks, which instead killed an Austrian tourist and a hotel employee at the Gold Mohur, and injured seven others altogether. The next day, the U.S. government announced the evacuation of all U.S. forces still stationed in Yemen for Operation Restore Hope.

The bombings are considered by some to be al-Qaeda's first attacks against the U.S. due to the connections that Islamic Jihad in Yemen, including its leader Tariq al-Fadhli, had to Osama bin Laden financially. Bin Laden would later take credit for the attacks in 1998.

Background

Islamic Jihad in Yemen was formed by former mujahideen returning from Afghanistan after the Soviet Union withdrew from the country in the late 1980s. Many members of the group, including its leader Tariq al-Fadhli, had fought under the command of Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. [1] Bin Laden trained al-Fadhli and provided him with financial support in order to fight against the government of the socialist South Yemen. [2] [3] With the unification of North and South Yemen in May 1990, many in the Islamist movement began shifting their attention to foreign targets, primarily the United States. [3]

The Yemeni government authorized the U.S. to use their country as a staging ground for UNOSOM I, the U.S.-led United Nations mission to provide and protect humanitarian relief in Somalia amid the civil war. The port city of Aden served as a refueling station for U.S. forces travelling to Somalia. UNOSOM I was replaced by UNITAF (codenamed Operation Restore Hope) in December 1992. By this time, the U.S. had heavily scaled down its usage of Yemen as a staging ground for operations in Somalia. [4]

Attacks

The bombings targeted two popular Aden hotels hosting more than 100 U.S. Marines en route to Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope; the Aden Mövenpick Hotel and the Gold Mohur Hotel. [5] [6] Jamal al-Nahdi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in Yemen who served as the main operative in the bombings, intended the explosions to occur simultaneously. [5] [6]

On the day of the attacks, Nahdi along with an assistant planted the first bomb in or near a restaurant in the Gold Mohur and then travelled to the Mövenpick at the other side of the city. [7] [6] As Nahdi was laying the charges of his truck bomb in the parking lot of the Mövenpick, the detonator went off prematurely, tearing off most of his left hand while injuring his assistant and a security guard who was approaching their vehicle. [5] [4] [7]

The bomb at the Gold Mohur exploded minutes later as planned, heavily damaging a hallway in the hotel just as the restaurant was filled with civilians. [6] [7] Local television reported that a third bomb was placed at a seperate hotel but was successfully defused by authorities. [7] The bombing at the Gold Mohur killed an Austrian tourist and a Yemeni hotel employee, and injured four other Austrians. No U.S. Marines were killed or injured in either bombings as they had left the hotels prior to the explosions. [4]

Investigation

Nahdi and the other suspect were arrested on the scene. Authorities searching the car of the two perpetrators found 23 bombs, two anti-tank mines, two sticks of dynamite, two machine guns and a pistol. [7] [8]

Yemeni authorities believed Islamic Jihad in Yemen to be responsible for the bombing. [9] [10] Tariq al-Fadhli, the leader of Islamic Jihad, was arrested by Yemeni authorities along with various other group members in connection with the bombing. [3] Despite denying any involvement, he spent three years in prison on charges relating to bombings as well as a plot to assassinate a leader of the Yemeni Socialist Party. [2]

Aftermath

The U.S. government announced the withdrawal of their remaining troops stationed in Yemen for Operation Restore Hope on 30 December, in part due to the bombings. A spokesperson for the Pentagon downplayed the role that the bombings took in the decision to withdraw from Yemen, stating that by the time of the withdrawal Yemen was only transporting a single aircraft of soldiers per day. He said that "there was no longer a compelling need to use facilities there" and that "the primary reason was that the need for facilities had declined from the beginning of the operation." [4]

Connection with al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda intended this first attack against the United States as part of a larger campaign. Earlier in 1992, al-Qaeda allegedly was training Somali militants to fight against U.S. forces. Links have been made between this training and the militants who participated in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, which resulted in 18 deaths and 80 wounded US troops. In March 1997, Bin Laden said, "With Allah’s grace, Muslims over there cooperated with some Arab mujahideen who were in Afghanistan… against the American occupation troops and killed large numbers of them," in an interview on CNN. [11]

In 1998, Bin Laden would take credit for the bombings, claiming, "The United States wanted to set up a military base for US soldiers in Yemen, so that it could send fresh troops to Somalia… The Arab mujaheddin related to the Afghan jihad carried out two bomb explosions in Yemen to warn the United States, causing damage to some Americans staying in those hotels. The United States received our warning and gave up the idea of setting up its military bases in Yemen. This was the first al-Qaeda victory scored against the Crusaders." [12] This was not entirely true, since no Americans were injured or killed, nor did the United States recognize this action as a warning. At the time, "The troops went on to Somalia as scheduled, but the triumphant leaders of al-Qaeda said that they had frightened the Americans away and scored an easy victory." [13]

According to American author Simon Reeve in The New Jackals , the bombings were in some part planned by Mohammed Atef, al-Qaeda's military chief at the time. [14]

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References

  1. ↑ Koehler-Derrick, Gabriel (2011-10-03). "A False Foundation? AQAP, Tribes and Ungoverned Spaces in Yemen" (PDF). Combating Terrorism Center at West Point . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-04. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  2. 1 2 Fadhil Ali, Rafid (2009-11-20). "The Jihadis and the Cause of South Yemen: A Profile of Tariq al-Fadhli". The Jamestown Foundation . Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  3. 1 2 3 "Islamist Militancy in a Pre- and Post-Saleh Yemen". Stratfor . 2011-04-21. Archived from the original on 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Barr, Stephen (1993-01-02). "U.S. STOPS USING YEMEN SUPPORT BASE". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 2024-12-16. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
  5. 1 2 3 Burns, John F. (2000-11-26). "Yemen Links to bin Laden Gnaw at F.B.I. in Cole Inquiry". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2024-12-17. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Almosawa, Shuaib; Johnsen, Gregory D. (2014-05-15). "Resurrecting The Jihad in Yemen". BuzzFeed News . Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Yemen Blast Kills Tourist". Associated Press . Tyler Morning Telegraph. 1992-12-31. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  8. ↑ Bower, Amanda (2001-11-12). "Terrorist Hits And Misses". TIME . Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  9. ↑ "1992 Global Terrorism: Middle East Overview". Federation of American Scientists . 1993. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  10. ↑ "طارق الفضلي.. سيرة ذاتية" [Tariq Al-Fadhli.. Biography]. Al Jazeera (in Arabic). 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2025-01-19. [In 1992, the authorities suspected al-Fadhli and his "jihadist" supporters of involvement in the bombing of the Aden Hotel, which was being used by US forces fighting in Somalia at the time.]
  11. ↑ Phil Hirschkorn, "Scant Evidence Shown to Link bin Laden to GI Deaths in Somalia". CNN. 20 April 2001.
  12. ↑ Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, Revised Edition (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), p. 147.
  13. ↑ Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 198.
  14. ↑ Schmidt, Susan (2001-11-16). "Bin Laden Aide Was Key Planner". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 2025-01-19. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
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