Cruise Missile Strikes On Afghanistan and Sudan (August 1998) - Reaction

Reaction

  • United Nations - Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "concerned over these developments and awaits further details."
  • Australia - Prime Minister John Howard said the U.S. was entitled to respond to the East African embassy bombings.
  • Sudan - Thousands of anti-U.S. protesters took to the streets of Khartoum. The minister of information of Sudan harshly condemned the attack on Khartoum and denounced Bill Clinton as a "proven liar" with "100 girlfriends". President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir led an anti-U.S. rally and warned that his country "reserves the right to respond to the American attack using all necessary measures."
  • United Kingdom - Prime Minister Tony Blair said he "strongly" supported the U.S. strikes.
  • Cuba - Cuba said that "President Clinton ignored the sovereignty of Sudan and Afghanistan and launched a theatrical bombardment which overshadowed his recent sex scandal."
  • Germany - Chancellor Helmut Kohl said his government supported U.S. strikes.
  • Israel - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he "welcomes the U.S. decision to strike targets of terrorists in Sudan and Afghanistan."
  • Libya - Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi expressed his country's support for Sudan's efforts "in the fight against this aggression," and led an anti-U.S. rally in Tripoli.
  • Pakistan - Pakistan denounced the U.S. missile strikes as a violation of the territorial integrity of two Islamic countries.
  • Russia - President Boris Yeltsin condemned the U.S. action as "dishonorable" and said Washington "should have carried out negotiations to the end," but his spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said that "Russia and the United States are in the same boat in everything that concerns the fight against world terrorism."
  • South Africa - "In retaliation", a group calling itself Muslims Against Global Oppression bombed a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa on August 25, killing two and injuring 26.
  • Chechnya - Chechen Vice-President Vakha Arsanov said that by attacking Afghanistan and Sudan the United States had launched an "undeclared World War III", threatened to attack the Americans anywhere in the world, and that Clinton had been put on the "wanted list" for his crimes against the Islamic people and would be tried according to Sharia laws.
  • Iraq said it was "ready to cooperate with any Arab and international countries to confront the U.S. hostile policies."
  • In Afghanistan the Taliban denounced the bombing as actually aimed at the Afghan people. The movement denied charges it provides a safe haven for bin Laden and insisted that the U.S. attack killed only innocent civilians.
  • Osama bin Laden pledged to attack the U.S. again. Ayman al-Zawahiri made a phone call to a Newsweek reporter, stating that "The war has only just begun; the Americans should now await the answer."
  • Harkat-ul-Mujahideen also threatened to retaliate, saying "The Americans and Jews should now prepare for their destruction. The self-respecting Muslims of the world ... have announced they will wage a holy war against America."

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