Khobar Tower Bombing

Introduction:
Terrorism, across the globe has many kinds of very complex meanings and definitions. Terrorism is a very powerful word, which creates fear in all the entire population of the world. According to FBI, terrorism is involving violent acts or acts which are dangerous to human life that violates federal or state law (FBI, 2015). Usually, there are many different causes that make people choose terrorism. Some of the causes include ideologies, political issues, religious issues and socio-economic issues (Zalman, 2015). Terrorist activists in general think that they are fighting for a cause, but they don’t know that the way they chose to fight is affecting innocent civilians in a negative way.
In the past also there have been many terrorist attacks on U.S., either directly in U.S. or outside the U.S. on USA assets, troops etc. The attacks include World Trade Center bombing, Murray Federal Building bombing, USS Cole bombing in Yemen, Khobar Towers bombing on U.S. force in Saudi Arabia, 9/11 attacks on World Trade Center towers and Pentagon (Bullock, Haddow, Coppola, 2013).
Khobar Towers Bombing: Khobar Towers bombing was a very planned and coordinated attack on U.S. air force troops in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It was known as the 2nd biggest attack in the U.S. history killing 19 military members and around 372 Americans left injured (U.S. District Court, 1996).
A tanker truck is converted into a truck bomb known as Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosion Device (VBIED). They used around 3000-5000 pounds of explosives to detonate the truck bomb. The explosion was felt about 20 miles away in Bahrain and also left a crater of size 85 feet in width and 35 feet in depth destroying a 6 storied high raised building in which U.S. troops gathered (Bullock, Haddow, Coppola, 2013).
About the attack: On 25th June, 1996, it was around 10 PM in the night and a tanker truck backed against the fence of the Khobar Towers building. It was known that around 2000 U.S. military members in it. All the service members were ordered to do patrol in the no fly zone of southern part of the Iraq, The no fly zone was declared after the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) (Bullock, Haddow, Coppola, 2013). As planned, the terrorists initially drove car to check for a clear path and left another vehicle for escape. The truck then backed into the tower towards the front parking lot of the building. A U.S. security personnel noticed the suspicious activity around the tower and alarmed the members in the building, which eventually saved many American lives. But unfortunately, they only have about 10 minutes before the bomb was detonated. The concrete barriers present in the front of the building stopped the major damage to the building from the explosion. Due to the concrete barriers, the lower levels of the building didn’t collapse, which saved many lives because the entire building didn’t collapse from the bombing (Floyd D. Spence, 1996). The U.S. has no clue about the attack and were completely not prepared for the threat. A militant group named Saudi Hizballah, which primarily operates in Saudi Arabia, was surveilling the U.S. Air force troops from 1993, almost 3 years before the attack (Protection of U.S. forces abroad, 1996). There were cases in which US military security personals detected many suspicious activities around the Khobar Towers perimeter. They even deliberated this with the Saudi Arabian higher authorities to do a thorough investigation but everything ended as they are not threat activities. One can say that the Khobar Towers bombing was a very well-coordinated and planned attack. The plan went out very well that until the end, there was no clue left for the U.S. troops causing a great damage to U.S. military members. After the attack, U.S. security personnel made thorough investigation, which in turn helped them to locate many weak points in the security arrangements around the tower. The concrete barrier was later on replaced with a thick one inch cable and the trees around the fence are chopped down so that the view around the building be increased (Protection of U.S. forces Abroad, 1996).
The attack was planned because the terrorist organization want the U.S. Air force members and other troops to leave the country. It was estimated by the DOD that around 3000 to 8000 pounds of TNT equivalent was used for the attack. It was estimated by the DSWA that the bomb was much larger than estimated and it was equivalent to 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of TNT (Lieutenant General James F, 1996).
After the attack, security measures were increased at all the U.S. assets, troops operating worldwide, this also involved creating awareness, training, physical security and use of advanced security technologies systems and U.S. started considering protecting their troops operating abroad as one of their primary motives (Bullock, Haddow, Coppola, 2013). U.S. implemented many laws to protect all its citizens from terrorist activities and also from natural disasters. They considered terrorism as man-made disaster. Since 1990s, terrorism became a major threat to respond for the U.S. government.
Conclusion
Terrorism is a good ideology which was being implemented in a wrong way. A protest against a leader or political party or against a policy should be done in such a way that another common man should not be affected from it. But through terrorist activities, the entire mankind is affected and feared. U.S government took every possible step to respond to these terrorist activities and is successful in giving enough responses to the terrorist organizations which planned attacks against the U.S. citizens, troops and assets both inside and outside the United States of America homeland.

References: * U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, 25 June 1996; Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/khobar.pdf * House National Security Committee, Report on the Bombing of Khobar Towers (14 August 1996), by Floyd D. Spence; Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/saudi.pdf * U.S Air Force. Independent Review of the Khobar Towers Bombing, Part A (31 October 1996) by Lieutenant General James F. Record, 53; retrieved from http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/khobar_af/recordf.htm * Jane A. Bullock, George D. Haddow, Damon P. Coppola (2013). Introduction to Homeland Security (5th Ed.) * Amy Zalman (2015). The Causes of Terrorism; Retrieved from http://terrorism.about.com/od/causes/tp/Causes_of_Terrorism.htm * The Protection of U.S Forces Abroad. (1996, September 16); Retrieved from http://www.defense.gov/Speeches/Speech.aspx?SpeechID=937