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Kenya's history of terrorism
MOMBASA, Kenya (CNN) -- The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has received specific information of a possible imminent threat to U.S. interests in Kenya, intelligence sources told CNN Friday. This follows several high-profile incidents in the East African country, most recently a car bombing outside a hotel in the Kenyan tourist city of Mombasa last November. (Travel warnings earlier this year) In that instance, suicide bombers struck an Israeli-owned resort hotel in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, killing 10 Kenyans and three Israelis. The same day, two missiles were fired at -- but missed -- an Israeli charter jet taking off from that city. (Suspect photos released) Those events came four years after a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi on August 7, 1998. Simultaneously, another bomb went off outside the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people and injured thousands. The United States brought four men accused of having links to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network to trial for the attacks. They were jailed for life without parole. U.S. prosecutors indicted bin Laden in connection with the embassy bombings. Washington also blamed him and his al Qaeda group for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. For many Americans, word of the embassy bombings introduced them to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. Although bin Laden has never claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, he has supported the actions. For years, predominantly Muslim Somalia, which borders Kenya to the east, had been home to a number of al Qaeda terrorist training camps and was known to have links to al-Ittihad al-Islami, a fundamentalist Muslim group. In March 2002, U.S. officials said they no longer appeared to be in Somalia. U.S. troops withdrew from the country in 1994 after efforts to safeguard delivery of humanitarian aid evolved into an unsuccessful campaign against a Somali warlord, Mohammed Farah Aidid. The effort climaxed in a bloody street battle in October 1993 that left 18 American Special Forces troops and hundreds of Somalis dead. U.S. intelligence indicates the Somalis had help from al Qaeda, and some in the Pentagon said they believe bin Laden concluded from the battle that the U.S. military could be defeated simply by inflicting casualties.
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