From wealthy Islamic radical to the most wanted

Kenyans pray at the bomb blast site in Nairobi.  A powerful bomb tore through a building adjacent to the US embassy in 1998, claiming more than 200 lives. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By MOSES MICHIRA

Kenya: An attack on the US embassy in Nairobi exactly 15 years ago today raised the profile of Osama bin Laden from a wealthy Islamic radical to the top of the list of most world’s wanted terrorist.

A powerful bomb tore through a building adjacent to the US embassy in Nairobi, claiming more than 200 lives. Another 5,000 were left with serious injuries. Intelligence reports and Kenya’s Government own investigation pointed a finger at Al Qaeda and days later; bin Laden was fingered out as the mastermind. The hunt for bin Laden had been initiated and lasted nearly 13 years.

The attack also left indelible scar in the lives of thousands more in families that were directly affected by the explosion that caused heavy damages to ten of other buildings including the Cooperative Bank headquarters.

Victims of the bombing were caught in the crosshairs of a much bigger war between the US and Islamic extremists keen on damaging Western interests around the World, and the Kenyan US embassy was an easy target.

Several other terrorist attacks were laid at the doorstep of Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers. They included the attack on the US navy ship USS Cole on October 12 2000, while it was harbored at the Yemen port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed and 39 injured. It marked the deadliest attack against a United States Naval vessel since 1987.

Several other attacks followed in quick succession over the years. But the most spectacular and deadliest attack was the New York twin towers using commercial jet liners that took terrorism to a whole new level. Over 3,000 people died in that attack that took bin Laden to the top of the list of US intelligence targets.

The trail for Bin Laden grew cold after he was cornered by a special unit of the US army in Tora Bora and escaped shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The hunt lasted for over a decade with Bin Laden releasing occasional audiotapes and commenting on current issues. Most of his veiled attacks were targeted at the US, a nation he described as “the great Satan”.

On Monday, May 2 2011, the hunt and attack on Geronimo - a code name for bin Laden was launched following credible US intelligence that he had been sighted and tracked down to a nondescript compound in Abbottabad city – Pakistan. US President Barrack Obama sanctioned the operation.

The operation found its target and Bin laden was killed during the operation. Details of his killing and the subsequent burial of his bullet-riddled body at sea reveal that the operation was executed with high precision lasting no more than 40 minutes.

The mission involved about 25 soldiers from an elite Navy seal team six squad who flew in from a US-base inside Afghanistan aboard four helicopters, touching down on the hideout at around midnight- local time. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear was carried out in a Central Intelligence Agency-led operation. Participating units included the U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and key CIA operatives.

Intelligence sources indicate that there was gunfire immediately the Navy SEALs landed on the compound, fired by one of bin Laden’s aides to prompt an all-out response from the Americans.  After about five minutes of heavy exchange, bin Laden was killed with two shots to his head. President Obama and other top US officials were following the raid from the situation room of the White House.

Bin Laden had been living with his family in the hideout for years, shaking off any intelligence out to find him by embracing a series of gimmicks including donning a cowboy hat while he was out tending to his garden, according to reports.

The quiet neighbourhood also meant that there was minimal interaction between neighbours, even though the al Qaeda number 1’s compound had high walls about five metres high.

But even then, the fugitive was hardly in the outdoors and is thought to have spent most of his days as a dotting grandfather to more than ten children who hardly ever left the compound.

His wife was forced to feign deafness when she went to deliver at a nearby hospital to conceal the fact that she spoke Arabic, which could have given bin Laden away.  US revealed that it had hired doctors to trace bin Laden’s DNA through a possible contact with his family members that they could have treated after it was confirmed that he had left Afghanistan and was living in Pakistan.