Following the attacks, Kuwait's economy significantly suffered. The Kuwait bombings were attacks on six key installations on 12 December , two months after the Beirut barracks bombing. The minute coordinated attack on two embassies, the country's main airport , and petro-chemical plant was more notable for the damage it was intended to cause than what was actually destroyed. What might have been "the worst terrorist episode of the twentieth century in the Middle East " killed only six people because of the bombs' faulty rigging.
The perpetrators of the bombing were unknown but were purported to be connected to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The motivation of the bombing is suspected to have been punishment against Kuwait for its military and financial assistance to Iraq in the IranβIraq War. On 12 December , a truck laden with 45 large cylinders of gas connected to plastic explosives broke through the front gates of the American Embassy in Kuwait City and rammed into the embassy's three-story administrative annex, demolishing half the structure.
The shock blew out windows and doors in distant homes and shops. Only five people were initially killed two Palestinians , two Kuwaitis , and one Syrian [ 4 ] in large part because the driver did not hit the more heavily populated chancellery building and more importantly, only a quarter of the explosives ignited. An American diplomat told journalist Robin Wright : "If everything had gone off, this place would have been a parking lot ".
Five other explosions were attempted within an hour. An hour later, a car parked outside the French embassy blew up, leaving a massive 30 ft hole in the embassy security wall. No one was killed, and only five people were wounded.
The target intended to get the most powerful explosion was Kuwait's main oil refinery and water desalination plant, the Shuaiba Petrochemical Plant. Had that bombing been successful, it would have crippled the oil production of one of the world's major oil exporters and shut down most of the water supply of the nation.
