The cruise missiles strike on Iraq in June 1993 were ordered by

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

as both a retaliation and a warning triggered by the attempted assassination by alleged

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

i agents on former U.S. President George H. W. Bush while on a visit to

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

from 14–16 April 1993. On June 27, 1993, 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched by two

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

warships into downtown

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. These hit a building which was believed to be the headquarters of the

Iraqi Intelligence Service : The Iraqi Intelligence Service (Arabic: جهاز المخابرات العراقي, ''Jihaz Al-Mukhabarat Al-Eiraqii''), full name in Arabic language , Arabic]: جهاز المخابرات العامة العراقية "Jihaz almukhabarat aleama ...

in the

Mansour district Al Mansour ( ar, المنصور) is one of the nine administrative districts in Baghdad, Iraq. It is in western Baghdad and is bounded on the east by Karkh district in central Baghdad, to the north by Kadhimiya, to the west by Baghdad Internation ...

of Baghdad. Iraq claimed that nine civilians were killed in the attack and three civilian houses destroyed.

George H. W. Bush assassination plot

On the night of 13 April 1993, a day before George H. W. Bush was scheduled to visit Kuwait City to commemorate the international coalition victory against Iraq in the Persian

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

, Kuwaiti authorities arrested 17 persons suspected in the plot to kill Bush using explosives hidden in a

Toyota Landcruiser is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

. The Kuwaitis recovered the Landcruiser, which contained between 80 and 90 kilograms of plastic explosives, composed mostly of

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a ...

, connected to a detonator (called the "Bush device" in an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

laboratory report). They also recovered ten cube-shaped plastic explosive devices with detonators (called "cube bombs" in an FBI laboratory report) from the Landcruiser.

Responsible party

Clinton was convinced the attack was masterminded by the Iraqi Intelligence Service by two pieces of evidence. First, the suspects in the plot made detailed confessions to FBI agents in Kuwait. However, the defendants retracted the confessions and said they had been beaten into a fabricated confession. Second, FBI and

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

bomb experts claimed the captured car bombs to be made in Iraq, including a 175-pound car bomb found in Kuwait City on 14 April. However, these explosives were mass produced throughout the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and not only Iraq. In October 1993, New Yorker investigative journalist

Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American Investigative journalism, investigative journalist and political writer. Hersh first gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam Wa ...

assailed the U.S. government’s case as "seriously flawed", noting that seven bomb experts had told him that the devices were mass-produced and probably not manufactured in Iraq. Ultimately, an analysis by the CIA's

Counterterrorism Mission Center The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Mission Center for Counterterrorism (often referred to as the Counterterrorism Mission Center or CTMC, formerly the Counterterrorism Center, or simply CTC) was established in 1986, and is a division of the CI ...

concluded the assassination plot was most likely fabricated by Kuwaiti authorities. CIA analysts concluded that the Kuwaiti government "may have then decided to claim this (smuggling) operation was directed against Bush" in explaining the origins of the alleged assassination plot.

Cruise missile attack on Baghdad

Between 1AM and 2AM local time on 26 June/June 27, 1993, 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched by two U.S. Navy warships into downtown Baghdad. These hit a building which was believed to be the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in the

of Baghdad. Iraq claimed that nine civilians were killed in the attack and three civilian houses destroyed. The missiles were fired from the destroyer in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

and the cruiser in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

. U.S. Secretary of Defense

Les Aspin Leslie Aspin Jr. (July 21, 1938 – May 21, 1995) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the U.S. representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district from 1971 to 1993 and as the 18th United States Secretary of Defe ...

, stated in a June 27, 1993, interview with ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'': :"What we're doing is sending a message against the people who were responsible for planning this operation. . . . anybody asks the same people to do it again, they will remember this message."

References

External links

How Do We Know that Iraq Tried to Assassinate President George H.W. Bush?

So, Did Saddam Hussein Try to Kill George W. Bush's Dad? - by Jim Lobe

US Air Strike Against the Iraqi Intelligence Headquarters – 1993 - A Legal Analysis - by Paulina Starski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruise Missile Strikes On Iraq (June 1993) 1993 in Iraq Conflicts in 1993 Airstrikes conducted by the United States 20th-century military history of the United States Iraq–United States military relations June 1993 events in Asia Presidency of Bill Clinton

George H. W. Bush assassination plot

Responsible party

Cruise missile attack on Baghdad

See also

References

External links