Editing Al-Qaeda (section)

== Attacks ==
{{For timeline|Timeline of al-Qaeda attacks}}
[[File:RecentAlQaedaAttacks.svg|thumb|upright=1.65|
[[1998 United States embassy bombings|Nairobi, Kenya]]: August 7, 1998<br />
[[1998 United States embassy bombings|Dar es Salaam, Tanzania]]: August 7, 1998<br />
[[USS Cole bombing|Aden, Yemen]]: October 12, 2000<br />
[[September 11 attacks|World Trade Center, US]]: September 11, 2001<br />
[[September 11 attacks|The Pentagon, US]]: September 11, 2001<br />
[[2003 Istanbul bombings|Istanbul, Turkey]]: November 15 and 20, 2003]]

Al-Qaeda has carried out a total of six major attacks, four of them in its jihad against America. In each case the leadership planned the attack years in advance, arranging for the shipment of weapons and explosives and using its businesses to provide operatives with safehouses and false identities.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/twenty-years-war/496736/|title=Al-Qaeda Has Been at War With the United States for 20 Years|first=Dominic|last=Tierney|date=August 23, 2016|website=The Atlantic|access-date=March 29, 2024|archive-date=August 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160824134716/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/twenty-years-war/496736/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 1991 ===
To prevent the former Afghan king [[Mohammed Zahir Shah]] from coming back from exile and possibly becoming head of a new government, bin Laden instructed a Portuguese convert to [[Islam]], Paulo Jose de Almeida Santos, to assassinate Zahir Shah. On November 4, 1991, Santos entered the king's villa in [[Rome]] posing as a journalist and tried to stab him with a dagger. A tin of [[cigarillo]]s in the king's breast pocket deflected the blade and saved Zahir Shah's life, although the king was also stabbed several times in the neck and was taken to hospital, later recovering from the attack. Santos was apprehended by General Abdul Wali, a former commander of the [[Royal Afghan Army]], and jailed for 10 years in Italy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bergen|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Bergen|date=2021|title=The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mWI7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA60|location=New York|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-1-982170-52-3|pages=60–61}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=April 14, 2002|title=Bin Laden 'tried to kill king'|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1390843/Bin-Laden-tried-to-kill-king.html|access-date=April 8, 2024|website=The Telegraph}}</ref>

=== 1992 ===
On December 29, 1992, al-Qaeda launched the [[1992 Yemen hotel bombings]]. Two bombs were detonated in [[Aden]], Yemen. The first target was the Movenpick Hotel and the second was the parking lot of the Goldmohur Hotel.<ref name="wright174">{{Harvnb|Wright|2006|p=174}}.</ref>

The bombings were an attempt to eliminate American soldiers on their way to Somalia to take part in the international famine relief effort, [[Operation Restore Hope]]. Internally, al-Qaeda considered the bombing a victory that frightened the Americans away, but in the US, the attack was barely noticed. No American soldiers were killed because no soldiers were staying in the hotel at the time it was bombed, however, an Australian tourist and a Yemeni hotel worker were killed in the bombing. Seven others, who were mostly Yemeni, were severely injured.<ref name="wright174" /> Two fatwas are said to have been appointed by al-Qaeda's members, [[Mamdouh Mahmud Salim]], to justify the killings according to Islamic law. Salim referred to a famous fatwa appointed by [[Ibn Taymiyyah]], a 13th-century scholar admired by Wahhabis, which sanctioned resistance by any means during the Mongol invasions.<ref>{{Harvnb|Jansen|1997}}.</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=September 2009}}

=== Late 1990s ===
[[File:Kenya bombing 1.jpg|left|thumb|upright|1998 [[1998 United States embassy bombings|Nairobi embassy bombing]]]]
{{Main|1998 United States embassy bombings|2000 millennium attack plots|USS Cole bombing}}
In 1996, bin Laden personally engineered a plot to assassinate United States President [[Bill Clinton]] while the president was in [[Manila]] for the [[Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation]]. However, intelligence agents intercepted a message before the motorcade was to leave, and alerted the [[US Secret Service]]. Agents later discovered a bomb planted under a bridge.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Osama bin Laden came within minutes of killing Bill Clinton|first1=Tom|last1=Leonard|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=December 25, 2009|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/philippines/6867331/Osama-bin-Laden-came-within-minutes-of-killing-Bill-Clinton.html|access-date=December 25, 2009|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091225150252/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/philippines/6867331/Osama-bin-Laden-came-within-minutes-of-killing-Bill-Clinton.html|archive-date=December 25, 2009|url-status=live}}</ref>

On August 7, 1998, al-Qaeda [[1998 U.S. embassy bombings|bombed the US embassies in East Africa]], killing 224 people, including 12 Americans. In retaliation, a barrage of [[cruise missile]]s launched by the US military devastated an al-Qaeda base in [[Khost]], Afghanistan. The network's capacity was unharmed. In late 1999 and 2000, al-Qaeda planned [[2000 millennium attack plots|attacks to coincide with the millennium]], masterminded by [[Abu Zubaydah]] and involving [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Qatada]], which would include the bombing of Christian holy sites in Jordan, the bombing of [[Los Angeles International Airport]] by [[Ahmed Ressam]], and the bombing of the {{USS|The Sullivans|DDG-68}}.

On October 12, 2000, al-Qaeda militants in Yemen [[USS Cole bombing|bombed]] the [[Guided missile destroyer|missile destroyer]] ''[[USS Cole (DDG-67)|USS Cole]]'' in a suicide attack, killing 17 US servicemen and damaging the vessel while it lay offshore. Inspired by the success of such a brazen attack, al-Qaeda's command core began to prepare for an attack on the US itself.

=== September 11 attacks ===
{{Main|September 11 attacks}}
{{Further|Motives for the September 11 attacks}}
[[File:FEMA - 4235 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-28-2001 in New York.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of the September 11 attacks]]
[[File:Mohamed Atta.jpg|thumb|Mohamed Atta, the pilot hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11 and leader of the September 11 attacks]]
The September 11 attacks on America by al-Qaeda killed 2,996 people{{snd}}2,507 civilians, 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel as well as 19 hijackers who committed murder-suicide. Two commercial airliners were deliberately flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon, and a fourth, originally intended to target either the [[United States Capitol]] or the [[White House]], crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township near [[Shanksville, Pennsylvania]] after passengers revolted. It was the deadliest foreign attack on American soil since the [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, 1941, and to this day remains the deadliest terrorist attack in human history.

The attacks were conducted by al-Qaeda, acting in accord with the [[Fatawā of Osama bin Laden#1998 Fatwa|1998 ''fatwa'']] issued against the US and its allies by persons under the command of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and others.<ref name="Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders" /> Evidence points to suicide squads led by al-Qaeda military commander [[Mohamed Atta]] as the culprits of the attacks, with bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, [[Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]], and [[Hambali]] as the key planners and part of the political and military command.

Messages issued by bin Laden after September 11, 2001, praised the attacks, and explained their motivation while denying any involvement.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/inv.binladen.denial/|title=Bin Laden says he wasn't behind attacks|publisher=CNN|access-date=July 6, 2006|date=September 17, 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060705161654/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/inv.binladen.denial/|archive-date=July 5, 2006|url-status=live}}</ref> Bin Laden strongly supported the attacks by identifying numerous grievances of Muslims, such as the general perception that the US was actively oppressing Muslims.<ref>{{Harvnb|Esposito|2002|p=22}}.</ref> In his "''Letter to the American people''" published in 2002, Osama Bin Laden stated: <blockquote>Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:
(1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us. ....

The American government and press still refuses to answer the question:
Why did they attack us in New York and Washington? 
If [[Ariel Sharon|Sharon]] is a man of peace in the eyes of [[George W. Bush|Bush]], then we are also men of peace!!! America does not understand the language of manners and principles, so we are addressing it using the language it understands.<ref name=Letter2002 /><ref>{{cite web|title=Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'|url=https://scholarship.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/218e2431-0b76-43ff-8ac5-284ae73d29ad/content|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014061421/https://scholarship.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/218e2431-0b76-43ff-8ac5-284ae73d29ad/content|archive-date=14 October 2023}}</ref></blockquote>

Bin Laden asserted that America was massacring Muslims in "[[Palestinian National Authority|Palestine]], [[Chechnya]], [[Kashmir]] and [[Iraq]]" and Muslims should retain the "right to attack in reprisal". He also claimed the 9/11 attacks were not targeted at people, but "America's icons of military and economic power", despite the fact he planned to attack in the morning when most of the people in the intended targets were present and thus generating the maximum number of human casualties.<ref>Hamid Miir 'Osama claims he has nukes: If U.S. uses N-arms it will get the same response' "Dawn: the Internet Edition" November 10, 2001</ref>

Evidence later came to light that the original targets for the attack may have been nuclear power stations on the US East Coast. The targets were later altered by al-Qaeda, as it was feared that such an attack "might get out of hand".<ref name="AL-QAIDA-LEADERS-SAY-NUCLEAR-POWER-STATIONS-WERE-ORIGINAL-TARGETS">{{Cite news|title=Al-Qaida leaders say nuclear power stations were original targets|url=https://www.theguardian.com/afghanistan/story/0,1284,788431,00.html|work=The Guardian|location=UK|date=September 9, 2002|access-date=January 11, 2007|first1=Giles|last1=Tremlett|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070122160702/http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0%2C1284%2C788431%2C00.html|archive-date=January 22, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Al-Qaeda-SCALED-BACK-10-PLANE-PLOT">{{Cite news|title=Al Qaeda Scaled Back 10-Plane Plot|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45853-2004Jun16_2.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 17, 2004|access-date=January 11, 2007|archive-date=October 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010144832/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45853-2004Jun16_2.html|url-status=live}}</ref>