World Trade Center Bombing
New York, New York
February 26, 1993
The 500-kilogram car bomb that exploded in the basement level of the World Trade Center killed six people and injured thousands. When the dust settled, the FBI arrested and convicted three Islamic militants, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, Mohammed Salameh and Mahmud Abouhalima. Each is serving the maximum 240-year prison term. According to a letter in The New York Times, the plot was carried out in order to persuade the United States to end its "interference" in the Middle East and cut ties with Israel.
Yousef's group, the Liberation Army Fifth Battalion, had connections to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda and received funding from his uncle, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an important al Qaeda planner who played a part in the airline hijackings on September 11, 2001. This first Trade Center bombing foreshadowed September 11-- approximately 55,000 workers fleeing the building faced many of the same obstacles faced by workers in 2001. Evacuation plans were said to have completely failed. Although it was publicly known in advance that Yousef's goal was to knock the towers down, only roadblocks and guards were placed in and around Wall Street buildings as a precautionary measure.