World Trade Center bombing of 1993

World Trade Center bombing of 1993, terrorist attack in New York City on February 26, 1993, in which a truck bomb exploded in a basement-level parking garage under the World Trade Center complex. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in what was at that time the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil.

The attack

The World Trade Center bombing plot began in the months before September 1, 1992, when two of the main conspirators, Ahmad Ajaj and Ramzi Yousef, arrived in the United States from Pakistan. Upon detecting his poorly falsified Swedish passport, customs agents detained Ajaj and confiscated his suitcase, which contained bombing manuals and anti-American propaganda. Yousef, traveling on an Iraqi passport bearing the name Abdel Basit Mahmoud, requested political asylum. He was arrested for entering the United States without a visa but was released on his own recognizance and allowed into the country. While Ajaj waited in jail, Yousef began to implement a plan that allegedly aimed at toppling the twin towers of the World Trade Center. On October 1 he moved into a rented room in the Little Egypt section of Jersey City, New Jersey, with another conspirator, Mohammad Salameh.

The plotters purchased bomb-making materials and stored them in a locker rented by Salameh. On January 1, 1993, Salameh also rented a garage apartment in Jersey City for use as a bomb factory. Over the next several weeks, the group assembled a 1,500-pound (680-kilogram) bomb, and Salameh went on scouting missions to the World Trade Center. Yousef called an associate, Eyad Ismoil, who arrived in New York just days before the bombing.

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On February 23, 1993, Salameh rented a van, which he reported stolen two days later in order to establish an alibi. The men purchased several tanks of hydrogen gas and loaded them into the bomb-laden van to magnify the power of the explosion. In the early morning hours of February 26, Mahmud Abouhalima, another conspirator, filled the gas tanks of his car and the rented van. Yousef, Abouhalima, Salameh, and Ismoil then drove to Lower Manhattan.

The van was left in a parking garage in the World Trade Center complex. At 12:18 pm the explosives detonated, opening a blast crater six stories deep and 200 feet wide. Within hours Salameh went to the rental agency to claim his deposit for the “stolen” van; he was told to return later. Ismoil fled to Jordan, and Yousef, the mastermind of the operation, was on a flight to Karachi, Pakistan, that evening. By the time Yousef had left the country, authorities had already received more than 50 phone calls claiming responsibility for the bombing, as well as a handful of fake bomb threats at targets throughout New York City. With few leads, the initial suspects included Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi and Iraqi Pres. Ṣaddām Ḥussein. Ḥussein seemed the most likely candidate, as the bombing took place on the second anniversary of his defeat by U.S. forces in Kuwait.

Investigation and trial

Within two days of the bombing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uncovered a charred and mangled piece of the van’s chassis that bore its vehicle identification number. That number led authorities to the rental agency in Jersey City. On March 4, when Salameh returned to claim the refund on his deposit, the FBI arrested him. The rental agreement in Salameh’s pocket bore traces of bomb residue as well as the address of the Jersey City apartment. At the apartment, authorities found another roommate, Abdul Rahman Yasin, who led them to the bomb factory. Yasin, who was not taken into custody, left the country the next day, headed for Iraq. Abouhalima had also fled New York, for Saudi Arabia. He was arrested in Egypt on March 10, the same day Nidal Ayyad, another conspirator, was arrested in New Jersey. With Yasin in Iraq and Yousef still at large, a federal grand jury in Manhattan handed down an 11-count indictment against Salameh, Abouhalima, Ayyad, and a man named Bilal Alkaisi, who turned himself in to police in late March. Ajaj, Yousef’s traveling companion in 1992, was indicted in May 1993.

The trial began on September 16, 1993. The cases against Salameh and Ayyad were the strongest. Salameh was linked to each stage of the plot through phone, bank, and rental records, and Ayyad was considered the spokesman for the plot. Authorities recovered a draft of a communiqué sent to The New York Times from his computer. This document claimed responsibility for the bombing in the name of the 5th Battalion of the Liberation Army and demanded that the United States cease giving aid to Israel. Abouhalima was placed at the garage apartment on many occasions and at the gas station the morning of the bombing. Ajaj, who had spent the duration of the plot in jail, was implicated as Yousef’s associate and charged with carrying the bombing manuals from Pakistan. Various defense attorneys repeated the argument that Yousef, the apparent architect of the bombing, had duped the defendants, who were portrayed as unwitting participants. On March 4, 1994—after four months, 1,000 exhibits, and more than 200 witnesses—Salameh, Ayyad, Abouhalima, and Ajaj were all convicted and each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

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After a two-year manhunt, Yousef was captured in Pakistan in February 1995. He and Ismoil, who was arrested in Jordan in August 1995, were tried and convicted in the fall of 1997.