Countering Terrorism in East Africa: The U.S. Response

Countering Terrorism

In 1998, Al Qaeda (AQ) conducted its first U.S.-documented terrorist attacks against U.S. interests, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injuring over 4,500 in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Al Qaeda and related groups have executed subsequent terrorist attacks in East Africa, including the first known attack by an American suicide bomber in Somalia in October 2008. On July 11, 2010, 76 people, including one American, were killed in near simultaneous bombings in Kampala, Uganda. Al Shabaab, a Somali Islamist insurgent group with ties to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility, marking the group’s first successful attack outside Somali territory.