On August 7 , 1998 , al-Qaeda teams in Nairobi , Kenya , and Dar es Salaam , Tanzania , attacked the cities ' U.S. embassies simultaneously with truck bombs . In Nairobi , the explosion collapsed the nearby Ufundi Building and destroyed the embassy , killing 213 people , including 12 Americans ; another 4,000 people were wounded . In Dar es Salaam , the bomber was unable to get close enough to the embassy to demolish it , but the blast killed 11 Africans and wounded 85 . Bin Laden justified the high-casualty attacks , the largest against the U.S. since the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings , by claiming they were in retaliation for the deployment of U.S. troops in Somalia ; he also alleged that the embassies had devised the Rwandan Genocide as well as a supposed plan to partition Sudan
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Operation Infinite Reach