Few terror attacks actually leave a grand strategic impact. The 1983 Beirut bombing of the Marine Corps barracks triggered America’s retreat from its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon . The September 11 attacks in 2001 prompted an immediate invasion of Afghanistan and contributed significantly to the US-led attack on Iraq . The Madrid commuter train bombing in March 2004 is thought to have prompted the Spanish electorate to replace a government keen to support Iraq’s reconstruction with another pledging disengagement. Although the Horn of Africa (including Yemen across the narrow Red Sea) has been the theater for a number of important al-Qaeda attacks, such as the dual bombings of US Embassies in August 1998 (Terrorist Incident and Terrorist Incident), the USS Cole bombing in 2000 , and the double strikes on Kenya in 2002 simultaneous targeting an Israeli-owned hotel and an Israeli airliner , it was the coordinated militant attack on US peacekeeping forces in Somalia in 1993 that provoked another strategic policy reversal ? in this case another withdrawal ? by US-led UN forces. Upon reflection, then, the Horn of Africa has been a particularly active front in al-Qaeda’s terrorism war, and the region is particularly noteworthy as a battleground linked to a strategic success for terrorists.

TRC’s WAR Report has featured 28 unique proprietary analyses on terrorism across the Horn of Africa since its first published issue in October 2003. The region (see map)–comprised of Djibouti , Eritrea , Ethiopia , Kenya, Somalia, Sudan , and Yemen–not only provides targets for anti-Western jihadist networks, but the remote ungoverned territories provide sanctuary for training and logistical support as well as safe haven for regional al-Qaeda leadership and operational planning. Most obviously, Somalia was home to Osama bin Laden from 1991-1996 as well as a coterie of several hundred veterans of the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. Even after his relocation to Afghanistan, several senior al-Qaeda operational leaders, such as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, thought to have been behind the African embassy attacks remained in Somalia. That country, along with Sudan, were sources of significant “intelligence chatter” linked to attacks mentioned above and, perhaps, the Casablanca attack in May 2003 .