The History of Terrorist Attacks on the United States
On October 23, 1983 a truck loaded with explosives rammed into the barracks of
U.S. Marine peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon. In all, 241 United States service men died
after the attack. The militant Islamic group Hizballah was involved.
On February 26, 1993 the World Trade Center in New York City was the target of a
terrorist attack. A truck loaded with explosives was placed in an underground parking
garage. Six people were killed and over 1,000 were injured, including 105 firefighters.
Ten Muslim militants were found guilty of conspiracy and other bombing charges, including
Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the attack. Yousef was found guilty and was
sentenced to life in prison plus 240 years.
In the spring of 1995 the Murrah Building (a federal office building) in Oklahoma
City was bombed. One hundred sixty eight people died in the attack, including many young
children in a day care facility inside the building. Timothy McVeigh, an American who
fought for the U.S. in the Persian Gulf War, was found guilty and was sentenced to death.
Terry Nichols, also an American, was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison.
On June 25, 1996 a truck bomb exploded next to a U.S. Air Force housing complex
in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Three hundred seventy people were injured and 19 Americans
were killed. Hizballah is believed to have been responsible with the help of Iranian
intelligence agencies.
Two American embassies were bombed on August 7, 1998 in East Africa. In Nairobi,
Kenya 4,500 people were injured. Another 213 people were killed, including 12 Americans.
On the same day, 11 people were killed and 85 injured at the U.S. embassy in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania.
On October 12, 2000 two suicide bombers in a small boat blasted a 40-foot by 40-
foot hole in the side of the U.S.S. Cole, a guided missile destroyer. Seventeen U.S. sailors
were killed and 39 more were wounded. Islamic militants, with ties to Osama bin Laden are
the prime suspects.
Most recently, on September 11, 2001 two hijacked American planes crashed into
World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 in New York City. Another plane crashed into the
Pentagon in Washington D.C., while yet another crashed in Pennsylvania. 2,985 people died
on 9/11/01. Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization Al Qaeda is the prime suspect.
Answer the following questions:
1. How many times has the United States (here or overseas) been attacked by terrorists?
2. For how many years has the U.S. been under attack?
3. When and where did the first attack take place?
4. How many U.S. servicemen were killed in the first attack?
5. How many times was the World Trade Center in New York City attacked by terrorists?
6. How many people died in the attacks on the World Trade Center?
7. Which terrorist act did Americans commit?
8. Where and when did that attack take place?
9. In what part of the world were two U.S. embassies attacked on the same day?
10. Which branches of the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) have
terrorists attacked?