1980 Nairobi hotel bombing

On 31 December 1980, New Year's Eve, a bomb exploded in the Fairmont The Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. It partially destroyed the hotel, killing 20 people and wounding another 87.[3][4][5][1][2]

1980 Nairobi hotel bombing
Location	Fairmont The Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
Date	31 December 1980
Attack type	Bombing
Deaths	20[1][2]
Injured	87

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OpenStreetMap view of attack location

The owner of the hotel was a prominent member of the local Jewish community, and it has been suggested that the attack was in retaliation for Kenya providing support to rescue the Israeli hostages in Uganda during Operation Entebbe four years earlier.[4][5] Among the dead were at least four Kenyans, two Americans, two British children, a Danish employee of KLM, a Frenchman, and a Belgian child.[6][7] The bomber was said by the Kenyan government to be a Moroccan with a Maltese passport named Qaddura Mohammed Abd Al-Hamid, identified as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who departed on a flight to Saudi Arabia on the day of the bombing.[4][5][8]

References

1. Laing, Aislinn (21 September 2013). "Nairobi assault: Kenyan terrorist attacks since 1980". The Telegraph. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
2. "20 killed in bomb attack on Norfolk". mobile.nation.co.ke. Daily Nation. 15 September 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
3. "Bomb likely cause of New Year's Eve blast". UPI. 1 January 1981.
4. "Terrorist Incidents against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad, 1968-2003". International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. 20 December 2003.
5. Rubin, Barry; Rubin, Judith Colp (2015). Chronologies of Modern Terrorism. Routledge. p. 195. ISBN 9781317474654.
6. "Feds Have Older Kenya Bombing To Explain". New York Daily News. 12 August 1998.
7. "Suspected hotel bomber escapes". UPI. 4 January 1981.
8. "Kenya says Palestinian responsible for hotel blast". UPI. 7 January 1981.