Operation Infinite Reach facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Operation Infinite Reach |
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| Part of the Afghan conflict | |
Map showing the two sites of attacks
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| Location | Khartoum, Sudan 15°38′45″N 32°33′42″E / 15.64583°N 32.56167°E |
| Planned | 7–20 August 1998 |
| Target | Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory and Afghan training camp |
| Date | 20 August 1998 |
| Executed by |  United States Navy |
| Outcome | United States failure
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| Casualties | 6–50 militants killed 1 killed, 10 injured 5 ISI officers killed |
Operation Infinite Reach was the codename for American cruise missile strikes on al-Qaeda bases that were launched concurrently across two continents on 20 August 1998. Launched by the U.S. Navy, the strikes hit the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan, and a camp in Khost Province, Afghanistan, in retaliation for al-Qaeda's August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people (including 12 Americans) and injured over 4,000 others. Operation Infinite Reach was the first time the United States acknowledged a preemptive strike against a violent non-state actor.
U.S. intelligence wrongly suggested financial ties between the al-Shifa plant, which produced over half of Sudan's pharmaceuticals, and Osama bin Laden; a soil sample collected from al-Shifa allegedly contained a chemical used in VX nerve gas manufacturing. Suspecting that al-Shifa was linked to, and producing chemical weapons for, bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, the U.S. destroyed the facility with cruise missiles, killing or wounding 11 Sudanese. The strike on al-Shifa proved controversial; after the attacks, the U.S. evidence and rationale were criticized as faulty, and academics Max Taylor and Mohamed Elbushra cite "a broad acceptance that this plant was not involved in the production of any chemical weapons."
The missile strikes on al-Qaeda's Afghan training camps were aimed at preempting more attacks and killing bin Laden. These strikes damaged the installations, but bin Laden was not present at the time. Two of the targeted camps were run by the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan who were training militants to fight in Kashmir; in all, five ISI officers were confirmed killed and at least twenty militants also died. Following the attacks, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban allegedly reneged on a promise to Saudi intelligence chief Turki bin Faisal to hand over bin Laden, and the regime instead allegedly strengthened its ties with the al-Qaeda chief.
Operation Infinite Reach, the largest U.S. action in response to a terrorist attack since the 1986 bombing of Libya, was met with a mixed international response: U.S. allies and most of the American public supported the strikes, but many across the Muslim world disapproved them, viewing them as attacks specifically against Muslims, a factor that was further capitalized by radicals. The failure of the attacks to kill bin Laden also enhanced his public image in parts of the Muslim world. Further strikes were planned but not executed; as a 2002 congressional inquiry noted, Operation Infinite Reach was "the only instance ... in which the CIA or U.S. military carried out an operation directly against Bin Laden before September 11."
Aftermath
Reactions in the U.S.
Operation Infinite Reach was covered heavily by U.S. media: About 75% of Americans knew about the strikes by the evening of August 20. The next day, 79% of respondents in a Pew Research Center poll reported they had "followed the story 'very' or 'fairly' closely." The week after the strikes, the evening programs of the three major news networks featured 69 stories on them. In a Newsweek poll, up to 40% thought that diverting attention from the Lewinsky scandal was one objective of the strikes; according to a Star Tribune poll, 31% of college-educated respondents and 60% of those "with less than a 12th grade education" believed that the attacks were motivated "a great deal" by the scandal. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll of 628 Americans showed that 47% thought it would increase terrorist attacks, while 38% thought it would lessen terrorism. A Los Angeles Times poll of 895 taken three days after the attack indicated that 84% believed that the operation would trigger a retaliatory terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
International reactions
While U.S. allies such as Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the Northern Alliance supported the attacks, they were opposed by Cuba, Russia, and China, as well as the targeted nations and other Muslim countries. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said that "resolute actions by all countries" were required against terrorism, while Russian President Boris Yeltsin condemned "the ineffective approach to resolving disputes without trying all forms of negotiation and diplomacy."
Al-Qaeda victory
The outcome was considered a political and strategic victory for al-Qaeda. The Taliban announced within a day that bin Laden had survived the attacks, which Wright notes strengthened his image in the Muslim world "as a symbolic figure of resistance" to the U.S. Bin Laden had prominent support in Pakistan, where two hagiographies of the al-Qaeda chief were soon published, parents began naming their newborn sons Osama, mosques distributed his taped speeches, and cargo trucks bore the slogan "Long Live Osama". Children in Kenya and Tanzania wore bin Laden T-shirts, and al-Qaeda sold propaganda videos of the strikes' damage in European and Middle Eastern Islamic bookstores. A 1999 report prepared by Sandia National Laboratories stated that bin Laden "appeared to many as an underdog standing firm in the face of bullying aggression," adding that the missile strikes sparked further planning of attacks by extremists. Operation Infinite Reach also strengthened bin Laden's associates' support for him, and helped the al-Qaeda leader consolidate support among other Islamist militant groups. The attacks also helped al-Qaeda recruit new members and solicit funds.
Images for kids
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The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, after the August 7, 1998, al-Qaeda bombing
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A U.S. satellite photo of the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr Base Camp
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Excerpt from Mullah Omar's August 22, 1998, phone call with a U.S. diplomat
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The remains of the destroyed Al-Shifa facility
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See also
- Foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration
- History of Afghanistan (1992–present)
- Sudan–United States relations
- Timeline of United States military operations
