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The First Gulf War
Kuwait had been invaded by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for its oil-rich qualities, leading to Saudi Arabia and Egypt summoning western nations such as the US to intrude, but Hussein wouldn't listen when the United Nations Security Coalition told Hussein to leave Kuwait. This led to a 42-day US led airstrike that ended with a cease-fire by George H.W. Busch. https://www.history.com/topics/persian-gulf-war -
World Trade Center Bombing
A 1,200 lb bomb was placed in a Ryder truck in the parking lot under the World Trade Center and set off, killing 6 people and injuring 1,000. The bombing was organized and executed by Ramzi Yousef, and it was said to be because he wanted to avenge the Palestinian sufferings by the Israelis helped by the US. -
Oklahoma City Bombing
The anti-government Timothy McVeigh and his co-conspirator Terry Nichols loaded explosives into a rental truck and detonated them outside of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 over all, injuring over 650 more people, and damaging or destroying over 300 other buildings in the area. McVeigh was sentenced to death, and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. -
United States Involvement in Serbia
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had been created in Serbia after the Serbian government had been suppressing the Kosovo people and massacring many civilians. NATO threatened Serbia with bombings, so the fighting stopped, but then soon resumed, leading to NATO beginning to bomb Serbia on March 24, 1999. -
Attack on the USS Cole
US warship, the USS Cole, had a large hole blown in its side when stopping at Aden, Yemen to refuel when two terrorists sailed over on a dinghy that exploded. There was a great amount of flooding, 17 sailors were killed, and 38 more were injured, but the ship managed to stay afloat. The men were alleged to be connected to Osama bin Laden, but lack of cooperation from Yemen authorities hasn't allowed the FBI to prove this. -
9/11
On September 11, 2001, four airplanes were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda Islamic extremists, and they flew two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into the pentagon, but the other plane crash-landed in a field in Pennsylvania. First the North Tower was hit, then the South Tower, and the Pentagon was hit after that, and the 4th plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3000 were killed, and the attacks led to increased airport security and combating terrorism. -
Invasion of Afghanistan
The invasion of the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan resulted from the 9/11 attacks as a "war on terrorism." The al-Qaeda organization was based in Afghanistan and supported by the Taliban who would violate its people's human rights. Major Taliban strongholds had been taken over by UN forces by early December of that year, and al-Qaeda forces still continue to hide out in mountainous regions of Afghanistan today. -
Invasion of Iraq
The US invaded Iraq to disarm the country, and to protect its people and the rest of the world from danger after thoughts of weapons of mass destruction were to be found in Iraq. President Bush put military pressure on Iraq, but ended all major combat operations on May 1 of that year, and no weapons of mass destruction were found. -
Boston Marathon Bombing
During the annual Boston Marathon, a bomb went off at the finish line in 2013, killing 3 spectators and wounding over 260 others. Two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and they planned out the terrorist attack on their own, not being tied to a terrorist group. -
Paris Bombing
In Paris, on the night of November 13, gunmen and suicide bomber attacked a major stadium, restaurants and bars, and a concert hall at the same time. 130 were dead, over 100 in critical condition, and hundreds more wounded. The attackers blamed French President Francois Hollande for intervening in Syria, and almost all of them killed themselves before going into custody.
