On August 7, 1998, al Qa’ida carried out deadly attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounding thousands of others. The terrorist attacks led to several security improvements to U.S. diplomatic posts. In 1999, Congress passed the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act, which set measures that better protect our personnel serving overseas, including the creation of a new Foreign Service specialty