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1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 US Embassy bombings occurred on August 7, 1998. Hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks, linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to American attention for the first time, and resulted in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list. According to a 1998 memo authored by Mohammed Atef and seized by the FBI, around the time of the attacks, al-Qaeda had both an interest in and specific knowledge of negotiations between the Taliban and the American-led gas pipeline consortium CentGas. In May 1998 a villa in Nairobi was purchased by one of the bombers for the purpose of accommodating bomb building in the garage. Ahmad Salim Swedan purchased a beige Toyota Dyna truck in Nairobi, and a 1987 Nissan Atlas refrigeration truck in Dar es-Salaam. Six metal bars were used to form a “cage” on the back of the Atlas, to accommodate the bomb. In June 1998, KK Mohamed rented House 213 in the Illala district of Dar es Salaam, about four miles from the US Embassy. A white Suzuki Samurai was used to haul bomb components hidden in rice sacks, from House 213. On August 7, between 10:30 am and 10:40 am local time (3:30–3:40 am Washington time), suicide bombers in trucks laden with explosives parked …