On 20 August 1998 , the factory was destroyed in cruise missile strikes launched by the United States military allegedly in retaliation for the truck bomb attacks on its embassies in Dar es Salaam , Tanzania , and Nairobi , Kenya on 7 August . The administration of President Bill Clinton justified the attacks , dubbed Operation Infinite Reach , on the grounds that the al-Shifa plant was involved with processing the deadly nerve agent VX , and had ties with the Islamist al-Qaeda group of Osama bin Laden , which was believed to be behind the embassy bombings and Operation Bojinka , an alleged large-scale terrorist plot . U.S. action on 20 August also hit al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan , where bin Laden had moved following his May 1996 expulsion from Sudan
attacks on its embassies
1998 United States embassy bombings
Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory