Terrorist Hits And Misses

By Amanda Bower

ATTACK DEC. 29, 1992 ADEN, YEMEN One hundred U.S. servicemen had just left the Gold Mohur Hotel, on their way to duty in Somalia, when the bomb hit. It killed two people in the hotel and seriously wounded four tourists. Two suspects reportedly had 23 bombs, two antitank mines, dynamite and machine guns.

ATTACK FEB. 26, 1993 WORLD TRADE CENTER, NEW YORK CITY The first attempt to bring down the Twin Towers resulted in six deaths and more than 1,000 injuries. The al-Qaeda organization was never mentioned at the trial of convicted mastermind Ramzi Yousef, but he was later convicted of other foiled plots that authorities suspect had al-Qaeda links.

ATTACK Oct. 3, 1993 Mogadishu, Somalia Bin Laden claims he supplied weapons and fighters to Somalis involved in a fierce battle that left 18 U.S. servicemen dead.

FOILED LATE 1994, EARLY 1995 MANILA, PHILIPPINES Then-fugitive Ramzi Yousef had already slipped out of the U.S. and the Philippines when officials investigated an explosion in a Manila apartment occupied by two people linked to him. Investigators discovered plots to assassinate the Pope and President Clinton during visits to the Philippines and to explode a dozen commercial jets over the Pacific.

FOILED JUNE 26, 1995 ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA An assassination attempt on the motorcade of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was unsuccessful.

ATTACK NOV. 13, 1995 RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA A car bomb at a U.S.-run training facility for the Saudi National Guard killed five Americans and two Indians. Four Saudis confessed on national television (they were later beheaded) and said they were "inspired" by bin Laden.

ATTACK JUNE 25, 1996 DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA A massive truck bomb at the Khobar Towers apartment compound, where hundreds of U.S. Air Force personnel were stationed, killed 19 U.S. airmen and wounded hundreds more.

ATTACK AUG. 7, 1998 DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA & NAIROBI, KENYA Truck bombs hit U.S. embassies in both cities, killing 224, including 12 Americans. Bin Laden and 20 others were later indicted; four received life sentences.

FOILED DEC. 14, 1999 PORT ANGELES, WASH. Alert U.S. Customs agents noticed that Ahmed Ressam was sweating--in winter--while waiting to cross from Canada into the U.S. In his trunk, they found explosives. Ressam later confessed to a plot to blow up LAX airport.

FOILED DECEMBER 1999 AMMAN, JORDAN A tip to local intelligence officials revealed a plot to kill U.S. and Israeli millennium revelers by bombing a fully booked hotel and prominent Christian sites.

ATTACK OCT. 12, 2000 ADEN, YEMEN A boat laden with explosives rammed the U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding more than 30. Bin Laden, at his son's wedding, wrote an ode to his supporters who carried out the attack: "The pieces of the bodies of the infidels were flying like dust particles."

FOILED DEC. 25-26, 2000 STRASBOURG, FRANCE German investigators picked up four men across the Rhine River in Frankfurt on the eve of what they said was a planned bomb assault on Strasbourg's cathedral and market.

ATTACK SEPT. 11, 2001 NEW YORK CITY, WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA Four hijacked passenger airliners crashed into New York City's two tallest buildings, the Pentagon and a field in rural Pennsylvania. Thousands were killed.

FOILED SEPT. 13, 2001 PARIS AND BRUSSELS Evidence of plots to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris, and possibly also NATO headquarters in Brussels, was uncovered after the earlier confession of Djamel Beghal. The information, despite being partially retracted, led to arrests.

FOILED OCT. 8, 2001 SARAJEVO, BOSNIA NATO officials say they disrupted an al-Qaeda cell that was planning to attack the U.S. embassy and Eagle Base airfield, used by some 3,000 U.S. peacekeepers.

--By Amanda Bower