1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Facts for kids
The following fact
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1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Facts for kids
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 1: The World Trade
Center was a highly visible symbol in skyline of New
York city, its tallest buildings and an American icon
that represented the dominance of USA in world economy.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
2: On February 26,
1993, at 12:18 p.m. a small cell of terrorists, led by
Ramzi Yousef, detonated about 1,200 pounds of explosives
in a rental van in the underground parking garage at the
World Trade Center.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 3: Ramzi Yousef was born to
Pakistani-Palestinian parents in Kuwait and entered the United
States on an Iraqi passport on September 1, 1992.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 4: Ramzi Yousef went to stay at
the apartment of Musab Yasin, an Iraqi living in Jersey City and
before long had made close ties with other fundamentalists who were
recruited to the World Trade Center
Bombing plot.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 5: The
group of terrorists involved in the World Trade Center
Bombing attack included including Ramzi Yousef
(Kuwaiti), Mahmud Abouhalima (Egyptian), Mohammad
Salameh (Palestinian), Nidal A. Ayyad (Kuwaiti), Eyad
Ismoil (Palestinian), Abdul Rahman Yasin (aka the "Blind
Sheik", Iraqi) and Ahmed Ajaj (Palestinian)
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 6: The small cell of terrorists
were given support and the necessary financial backing for the World
Trade Center Bombing by Khaled
Shaikh Mohammed, the uncle of Ramzi Yousef. Khaled Shaikh Mohammed,
(aka KSM), later became the military head of Osama bin Laden’s al
Qaeda network and the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 7: The Plan: Ramzi Yousef's
plan was for the bomb to collapse the 110-storey North
Tower skyscraper building at the World Trade Center
complex and for debris from the North tower (1WTC) to
knock over the South Tower (2WTC). The twin towers were
massive, each weighing more than 250,000 tons,
containing 99 elevators and 21,800 windows. His goal was
to kill tens of thousands of people.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 8: Members of the
terrorist cell used bomb-making manuals from Pakistan to
construct the bomb and began to assemble the chemicals,
tools and wiring needed to make the bomb
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
9: The Bomb: Urea nitrate, a
fertilizer-based high explosive, was used as a
detonating device, was used as the bomb’s base and
cylinders of hydrogen were used to increase the
magnitude of the explosion. Although Urea nitrate is a
severe explosion hazard it is stable until detonated.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 10: The Bomb: The
explosive was surrounded by magnesium, aluminum and
ferric oxide particles. Three tanks of bottled hydrogen
were placed in a circular configuration around the main
explosive, to enhance the fireball of the solid metal
particles.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
11: The Bomb: The
bomb's true composition was never fully ascertained but
it is believed that there was cyanide in the bomb. This
cyanide theory was reinforced by experts including the
including the sentencing judge, Judge Kevin Duffy, who
said in his sentencing statement said, "You had sodium
cyanide around, and I’m sure it was in the bomb."
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 12: On February 26, 1993 the
bombers loaded their lethal devices into a a yellow Ford Econoline
rental van obtained from a Ryder rental center in New Jersey.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 13: Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil
parked the van at the B2 sub level of the public parking garage
beneath the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York. Ramzi Yousef
ignited the 20-foot fuse which gave the terrorists 12 minutes to get
out of the building.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 14: The bomb at the World Trade
Center Bombing exploded at 12:18
p.m. The explosion destroyed the 15 ft long, 1.5 in thick steel
cross bracing, cracking the adjacent column, and bowing the bracing
on the other side of the column. Without the bracing and
column supports, the concrete floors on the B1 level, and the floor
under the car (B2 level) collapsed.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 15: The scene of the
bombing was chaotic, numerous cars were crushed and in
flames, walls and ceilings collapsed and the pipes
containing electrical wiring went down. The twin towers
lost power and, as a result, people were either trapped
in elevators or in dangerous, dark, smoke filled
stairwells.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 16: The bomb opened up
a 98 foot hole in the concrete, but it was not enough to
bring the North tower down. The effect of the blast
eventually left a crater 200 feet by 100 feet wide and 7
stories deep.
Continued...
1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Facts for kids
Facts
about the World Trade Center Bombing for kids
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1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Facts for kids
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 17: The devastating
explosion of the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing cost
the lives of six people and 1,042 people suffered
injuries during the evacuation of the buildings.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 18: The bombing
victims: The 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack
killed six people. The victims were Stephen Knapp,
William Macko, John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick,
Wilfred Mercado and Monica Rodriguez Smith, who was
pregnant.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts - 19: Over 50,000 people
evacuated the Trade Center complex. The surrounding
streets, bridges and subways in Lower Manhattan were all
closed and following the deaths, confusion and chaos
Americans began to realize just how vulnerable the
homeland was to terrorist attacks..
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
20: Ramzi Yousef, the
mastermind of the World Trade Center Bombing operation,
was on a flight to Karachi, Pakistan, the same evening
of the attack and Eyad Ismoil fled to Jordan.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
21: On March 4, 1993
the FBI arrested a suspect, Islamic fundamentalist
Mohammad Salameh, when he tried to reclaim his $400 van
rental deposit from the Ryder rental center in New
Jersey.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
22: Authorities soon
arrested three more suspects of the World Trade Center
Bombing in New Jersey - Nidal Ayyad,
Mahmud Abouhalima, and Ajaj.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
23: As a response to
the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, extensive fire and
bomb safety improvements were made and "Blast mitigators"
were placed in and around the World Trade Center Plaza.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
24: In May 1994, four
of the terrorists Mohammed Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Mahmud
Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj - were sentenced to life for
the World Trade Center bombing.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
25: In February 1995,
nearly two years after the bombing of the World Trade
Center, Ramzi Yousef was captured in Pakistan. Ramzi
Yousef received 240 years imprisonment for the 1993 WTC
bombing. Ramzi Yousef shared the cell block, that is commonly referred to as
"Bombers Row", with
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber
and Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols
the Oklahoma City Bombers.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
26: In October 1995
Omar Abdel Rahman, the "blind sheik" who had preached at
mosques in Brooklyn and Jersey City, was sentenced to
life for masterminding the bombing.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
27:
The explosion caused in the 1993 World Trade Center
Bombing did not bring down the twin towers, as
Ramzi Yousef had intended. Ramzi Yousef later told
interrogators that he had intended to topple one
building and have it crash into the other, with the goal
of killing 250,000 people.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
28: Ramzi Yousef's
uncle, Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, was highly motivated by
the effect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing which
inspired him to mastermind the 9/11 terror attacks in
2001.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
29: Omar Abdel
Rahman's organization, the Islamic Group, is believed to
have links to
Osama Bin Laden's
Al-Qaeda network and of
carrying out the 11 September, 2001 attacks.
World Trade Center Bombing
Facts -
30: The Twin Towers
survived the
1993 World Trade Center Bombing but to the horror of
America and the rest of the world, they were destroyed
eight years later in the infamous
9/11 terrorist attacks.
1993 World Trade Center Bombing
Facts for kids
World Trade Center Bombing - Acts of Terror
For facts about
terrorist attacks on the US homeland refer
to:
World Trade Center Bombing - President Bill Clinton Video
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