On 20 August 1998, the United States launched cruise missile strikes against two targets: alleged al‑Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and the Al‑Shifa Pharmaceutical Factory in Khartoum North, Sudan. The strike on Al‑Shifa completely destroyed the facility, killing one civilian worker and injuring around a dozen others.
The attack was part of Operation Infinite Reach, ordered by President Bill Clinton in retaliation for the 7 August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), which killed more than 220 people.
Al‑Shifa was Sudan’s largest pharmaceutical factory, producing over half of the country’s medicines, including crucial anti‑malarial and veterinary drugs, and employing more than 300 workers.
U.S. officials claimed that Al‑Shifa was producing or processing EMPTA, a chemical precursor allegedly linked to the manufacture of VX nerve agent, one of the most lethal chemical weapons.
No conclusive proof of chemical weapons production were ever found.
U.S. officials later acknowledged that there was no direct evidence Al‑Shifa was manufacturing chemical weapons or storing VX.
by Extreme-Fish-7504