23 October 2010
The Beirut Bombing occurred on October 23, 1983. The act was a terrorist attack against the United States Marine Headquarters during the Lebanese Civil War. A yellow Mercedes delivery truck, its engine revving, crashed through several fences, then slammed into the headquarters lobby. Once in the lobby, the smiling driver, a Shiite Muslim suicide bomber, encountered unarmed marines and detonated his truck with 12,000 pounds of TNT, creating the largest non-nuclear explosion ever seen by the FBI.
The bomb’s force leveled the four-story, cinder-block building, killing nearly 300 people. A few months later, President Ronald Reagan ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops, who had been stationed in Lebanon to provide stability during the civil war between Muslims and Christians.
The explosion of the Marine Corps building in Beirut, Lebanon on October 23, 1983 created a large cloud of smoke that was visible from miles away. Official USMC Photo
Click on the photo to enlarge.
The details provided by Wikipedia:
The Beirut barracks bombing (October 23, 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon) occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen. The organization Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing, but that organization is thought to have been a nom de guerre for Hezbollah—or a group that would later become part of Hezbollah—receiving help from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs. In the attack on the American Marines barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers, along with sixty Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II. In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines’ building was killed in the first blast. The explosives used were equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT.
In the attack on the French barracks, the eight-story ‘Drakkar’ building, two minutes after the Marine attack, 58 paratroopers from the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment were killed and 15 injured, in the single worst military loss for France since the end of the Algerian War.
The blasts led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization following the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Photo at U-S-History.com
Date:
October 23, 1983, 6:20 a.m.
Attack type:
Suicide truck bombs
Death(s):
241 American servicemen
58 French servicemen
6 civilians
2 suicide bombers
Injured:
75
Belligerent(s):
Attributed to Imad Mughniyah [citation needed]
There is more information, photos, diagrams, suggested reading and footnotes at Wikipedia.
