About eight years before the events of September 11 that claimed the lives of approximately 3,000 Americans, the United States experienced a bombing targeting the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan, New York City. Just as happened on September 11, 2001, the assailants, holding extremist Islamic ideologies, aimed to destroy the towers and kill as many Americans as possible. Pakistani Ramzi Yousef is classified as one of the main orchestrators of the 1993 bombing. While he failed to destroy the World Trade Center towers, his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, belonging to al-Qaeda, succeeded in doing so about eight years later, and is regarded as the principal architect of the September 11 terrorist attacks; he is currently held at Guantanamo Bay.
**Casualties and Damage**
At around 12:18 PM on February 26, 1993, New York City was shaken by an explosion targeting the World Trade Center towers. This attack resulted in six deaths and injured more than a thousand others. The terrorists attempted to collapse the North Tower (Tower One) onto the South Tower (Tower Two).
The explosion, which involved a bomb weighing over 600 kg made from urea nitrate and hydrogen gas cylinders, created a large crater at the blast site and destroyed several ground floors, causing property damage exceeding half a billion dollars. Amid these events, American security forces and rescue teams intervened and managed to evacuate nearly 50,000 people nearby, fearing the potential collapse of the towers.
**Capture of the Attackers**
During the debris inspection following the explosion, officials from the FBI and New York Police found remnants of a car that had exploded from within. After scrutinizing its license plate, investigators obtained information indicating that a stolen vehicle report had been filed in New Jersey on the day preceding the bombing.
In their search for the owner of the vehicle, American investigators stumbled upon Palestinian Mohammad Salama, who the day after the explosion went to a car rental agency to reclaim $400. In questioning Salama, the FBI uncovered a storage area containing chemical components used to manufacture the bomb that exploded at the World Trade Center. While searching Salama's apartment, they were able to apprehend other accomplices like Nidal Ayyad, Mahmoud Abu Halima, and Ahmad Ajaj.
As the trial of these defendants commenced, the main perpetrator Ramzi Yousef managed to escape to Pakistan, where he continued his terrorist activities targeting other objectives, primarily a Philippine commercial aircraft.
In 1995, U.S. intelligence successfully captured Ramzi Yousef and transported him to New York, where he, along with his accomplices, was sentenced to life in prison.
Additionally, the investigations led the FBI to a mosque in Brooklyn where Imam Omar Abdel Rahman, of Egyptian origin and known as the Blind Sheikh, was accused of endorsing extremist religious ideologies that incited attacks on American targets. During the same period, U.S. authorities managed to uncover and thwart another terrorist plot in which extremists, incited by Abdel Rahman, aimed to bomb multiple targets, including the United Nations headquarters and the George Washington Bridge.
In 1996, U.S. authorities identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Yousef’s uncle, as a terrorist planning attacks on American soil. He later escaped, ascended within al-Qaeda's ranks, became close to Osama bin Laden, and is classified as a key mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
