(Reuters) – Here is a timeline on some of the major militant attacks in Africa in the last 15 years:
November 17, 1997 – Egypt’s biggest Islamic militant group, al-Gama’a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), kill 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians at the temples of Luxor.
August 7, 1998 – Truck bombs explode at U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224, including 12 Americans, and injuring thousands. All but 10 of the deaths are in Nairobi, where the damage is worse.
Nov 28, 2002 – Three suicide car bombers blow up the Mombasa Paradise resort hotel full of Israelis, – killing 15 other people – and wounding 80.
– On the same day, two missiles narrowly miss an Israeli Arkia Boeing 757 carrying 261 passengers on take-off from Mombasa airport.
May 16, 2003 – Suicide bombers using cars or explosive belts set off at least five blasts in Morocco’s biggest city Casablanca, killing 45 people including 13 attackers and wounding 60 people.
Oct 7, 2004 – Truck bomb attacks kill 34 people and wounds 120 in the Hilton hotel at the Egyptian border resort of Taba and in two other explosions which hit backpacker beaches near the resort of Nuweiba southwest of Taba.
July 23, 2005 – In Egypt car bombs rip through hotels and shopping areas in Sharm el-Sheikh killing 67 and wounding more than 200, including some foreigners.
April 24, 2006 – Three bomb blasts in the Egyptian Sinai resort of Dahab kill 20 people. Sixty-two were wounded.
April 11, 2007 – Suicide bombs kill 33 people in central Algiers. The bombings were the first large bomb attacks in the center of Algiers in more than a decade. They were later claimed by the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.
December 11, 2007 – Two blasts kill at least 37 people including 17 U.N. staff in Algiers at U.N. offices in Hydra district and the Constitutional Court in Ben Aknoun district.
August 19, 2008 – A bomb attack, targeting a paramilitary gendarmerie training school at Issers, 55 km (34 miles) east of Algiers, kills 43. At least 38 people are wounded.
June 18, 2009 – Suicide bombing kills Somalia’s security minister and at least 30 other people in hotel in Baladwayne in attack blamed by officials on Shabaab insurgents.
Dec 3, 2009 – Suicide bomber kills 22 people including three government ministers at Mogadishu’s Shamo Hotel. In February 2010 sports minister dies of wounds sustained in the attack, blamed by officials on al Shabaab.
January 8, 2010 – A Togo soccer team bus, traveling from the Republic of Congo to the African Nations Cup in Angola, was attacked in Cabinda province. Two people were killed and seven wounded.
– The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), who have fought for independence of the oil-producing province, claimed responsibility for the attack.
July 11 – Suspected Somali Islamists carry out two bomb attacks that kill at least 74 people in Kampala, Uganda, at a restaurant and a sports club packed with soccer fans watching the final moments of World Cup final.
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)