The first World Trade Center bombing is often overshadowed by the September 11th attacks, and many Americans know nothing about it. The attack was carried out by a group of terrorists who are thought to have ties to the terror group al-Qaeda which is a muslim extremist group, which at the time was run by Osama Bin Laden. The plot was carried out by a small group of less than ten people who detonated a large bomb in the parking garage under one of the two largest towers in the World Trade Center. The explosion killed six people instantly, injured dozens more and caused nearly half of one million dollars in damage. It was later uncovered that the terrorist anticipated an explosion triggering the collapse of the two tallest buildings in the World Trade Center, but thankfully the structural damage was not great enough to cause any other parts of the complex to collapse. Several member of al-Qaeda living in the United States were arrested in connection with the crime, and it was later discovered that the same group had several other plots in the making. Luckily these plots were never able to be carried out and all suspects who were arrested were later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Primary Sources
Below are actual newspaper and magazine covers regarding the bombing of the World Trade Center and the capturing of the suspects involved in the bombing.
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Below is the official report from The United States Department of Homeland Security regarding the 1993 bombing of The World Trade Center.
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HOW THE First World Trade Center Bombing CONTRIBUTED TO THE WAR ON TERROR
At the time that this event took place, this was the biggest terror attack on US soil in American history. By 1993, it was known that terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda opposed western countries like the United States, but this attack escalated the United States war on terror to an all time high. At the time of the attack, this was seen as the terrorist attack of the century. Today though many historians believe that after the tower failed to collapse, al-Qaeda saw this bombing as a test run to the September, 11th attacks.