1983 Beirut barracks bombing

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1983 Beirut barracks bombing

A smoke cloud rises from the rubble of the bombed barracks at Beirut International Airport.
Location
Date 23 October 1983
6:20 a.m.
Attack type Suicide truck bombs
Deaths 241 American servicemen
58 French servicemen
6 civilians
2 suicide bombers
Injured 75
Perpetrator(s) Unknown

The Beirut barracks bombing was a major incident on October 23, 1983, during the Lebanese Civil War. Two truck bombs struck separate buildings in Beirut housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing hundreds of servicemen, the majority being U.S. Marines. The blasts led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the Israeli 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The organization Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the bombing, but that organization is thought to have been a nom de guerre for Hezbollah receiving help from the Islamic Republic of Iran.[1]

Contents

[edit] The bombings

The USMC barracks in Beirut
The USMC barracks in Beirut
The building in 1982
The building in 1982

At around 6:20 a.m., a rainbow Mercedes-Benz truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines under the 2nd Marine Division had set up its local headquarters. The truck had been substituted for a hijacked water delivery truck. The truck turned onto an access road leading to the Marines' compound and circled a parking lot. The driver then accelerated and crashed through a barbed wire fence around the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate and drove into the lobby of the Marine headquarters. The Marine sentries at the gate were operating under rules of engagement which made it very difficult to respond quickly to the truck. By the time the two sentries had locked, loaded, and shouldered their weapons, the truck was already inside the building's entry way.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which were equivalent to 5,400 kg (12,000 pounds) of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story cinder-block building into rubble, crushing many inside. The blast was described by a U.S. federal district court judge as having been the largest deliberate non-nuclear blast ever, although there are many other contenders for this title. In 1945, for example, 100 tons of TNT was intentionally detonated near Alamogordo, New Mexico as a scaled-down test run to the detonation of the 1st nuclear weapon.[2] According to Eric Hammel in his history of the Marine landing force, "The force of the explosion initially lifted the entire four-story structure, shearing the bases of the concrete support columns, each measuring fifteen feet in circumference and reinforced by numerous one and three quarter inch steel rods. The airborne building then fell in upon itself. A massive shock wave and ball of flaming gas was hurled in all directions." The explosive mechanism was a gas-enhanced device, probably consisting of bottled propane, butane, or acetylene, placed in proximity to a conventional explosive such as primacord, all of which are readily available on the retail market. Despite the lack of sophistication and ubiquity of its component parts, a gas-enhanced device can be a very lethal weapon. These devices are similar to fuel-air or thermobaric weapons, explaining the large blast and damage. Following the Beirut barracks tragedy, the realization that terrorist organizations have weapons of potentially enormous yield deliverable by an ordinary truck or van led to the placement of protective barriers (bollards) around critical government facilities throughout the United States.[3]

About two minutes later, a similar attack occurred against the barracks of the French La 3ème Compagnie, 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes (3rd Company of the 1st Parachute Infantry Regiment), 6 km away in the Ramlet al Baida area of West Beirut. Another suicide bomber drove his truck down a ramp into the 'Drakkar' building's underground parking garage and detonated his bomb, leveling the eight-story building and killing 58 French soldiers. Many of the soldiers had gathered on their balconies moments earlier to see what was happening at the airport[4]

Rescue and clean-up crews search for casualties following the barracks bombing in Beirut on October 23, 1983. Photo by SSgt Randy Gaddo, USMC
Rescue and clean-up crews search for casualties following the barracks bombing in Beirut on October 23, 1983. Photo by SSgt Randy Gaddo, USMC
President Ronald Reagan (far left) and First Lady Nancy Reagan pay their respects to the caskets of the victims of the attacks
President Ronald Reagan (far left) and First Lady Nancy Reagan pay their respects to the caskets of the victims of the attacks

[edit] Death toll

Rescue efforts continued for days. While the rescuers were at times hindered by sniper fire, some survivors were pulled from the rubble and airlifted to the hospital at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus or to U.S. and German hospitals in West Germany.[5]

In the attack on the American barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three Army soldiers. Sixty Americans were injured. In the attack on the French barracks, 58 paratroopers were killed and 15 injured, in the single worst military loss for France since the end of the Algerian War.[6] In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines' building was killed in the first blast.[5] The wife and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building were also killed.[7]

This was the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima of World War II (2,500 in one day) and the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the 243 killed on January 31, 1968, the first day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The attack remains the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.[8]

[edit] Response

U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the attack a "despicable act" and pledged to keep a military force in Lebanon. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, who had privately advised the administration against ever having stationed U.S. Marines in Lebanon,[9] said there would be no change in the U.S.'s Lebanon policy. On October 24 French President François Mitterrand visited the French bomb site. It was not an official visit, and he only stayed for a few hours, but he did declare: "We will stay." U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush toured the Marine bombing site on October 26 and said the U.S. "would not be cowed by terrorists."

In retaliation for the attacks, France launched an airstrike in the Beqaa Valley against alleged Islamic Revolutionary Guards positions. President Reagan assembled his national security team and planned to target the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iranian Revolutionary Guards believed to be training Hezbollah fighters.[10] Defense Secretary Weinberger lobbied successfully against the mission, because he was not certain that Iran was to blame for the attacks.[9]

Besides a few shellings, there was no serious retaliation for the Beirut bombing from the Americans. In December 1983, U.S. aircraft attacked Syrian targets in Lebanon, but this was in response to Syrian missile attacks on planes, not the barracks bombing.

In the meantime, the attack gave a boost to the growth of the Shi'ite organization Hezbollah. Hezbollah denied involvement in the attacks but was seen by Lebanese as involved nonetheless as it praised the "two martyr mujahideen" who "set out to inflict upon the U.S. Administration an utter defeat not experienced since Vietnam ..."[11] Hezbollah was now seen by many as "the spearhead of the sacred Muslim struggle against foreign occupation".

Amal militia leader Nabih Berri, who had previously supported U.S. mediation efforts, asked the U.S. and France to leave Lebanon and accused the U.S. and France of seeking to commit 'massacres' against the Lebanese and creating a "climate of racism" against the Shia.[12] Islamic Jihad phoned in new threats against the MNF "pledging that 'the earth would tremble' unless the MNF withdrew by New Year's Day 1984.[13]

The Marines were moved offshore where they could not be targeted. On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the Marines to begin withdrawal from Lebanon. This was completed on February 26, four months after the barracks bombing; the rest of the Multinational Force was withdrawn by April.

[edit] Aftermath

An injured U.S. Marine.
An injured U.S. Marine.

At the time of the bombing, several radical racist Shia militant groups claimed responsibility for the attacks, and one, the Free Islamic Revolutionary Movement, identified the two suicide bombers as Abu Mazen and Abu Sijaan.[14]

After some years of investigation the bombing was thought to have been committed by the Lebanese Shia militant militia and political party Hezbollah while it was still "underground," though opinion is not unanimous. Hezbollah did not formally announce its existence until 1985 when it published a manifesto condemning the West and proclaiming "Allah is behind us supporting and protecting us while instilling fear in the hearts of our enemies."[15] The U.S. government believes that elements that would eventually become Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, were responsible for this bombing,[16] as well as the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut earlier in April. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have denied any involvement.

Lebanese author Hala Jaber claims that Iran and Syria helped organize the bombing which was run by two Lebanese Shia, Imad Mughniyeh and Mustapha Badredeen:

Imad Mughniyeh and Mustapha Badredeen took charge of the Syrian-Iranian backed operation. Mughniyeh had been a highly trained security man with the PLO's Force 17 . . . Their mission was to gather information and details about the American embassy and draw up a plan that would guarantee the maximum impact and leave no trace of the perpetrator. Meetings were held at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. They were usually chaired by the ambassador, Hojatoleslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi, who played an instrumental role in founding Hezbollah. In consultation with several senior Syrian intelligence officers, the final plan was set in motion. The vehicle and explosives were prepared in the Bekaa Valley which was under Syrian control.[17]

Along with the U.S. embassy bombing, the barracks bombing prompted the Inman Report, a review of the security of U.S. facilities overseas for the United States Department of State.

[edit] Civil suit against Iran

On October 3 and December 28, 2001, the families of 241 servicemen who were killed as well as several injured survivors filed a civil suits against Islamic Republic of Iran and the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. [18] In their separate complaints, the families and survivors sought a judgment that Iran was responsible for the attack and relief in the form of damages (compensatory and punitive) for wrongful death and common-law claims for battery, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress resulting from an act of state-sponsored terrorism.[18]

Iran (the defendants) was served with the two complaints (one from Deborah D. Person, Personal Representative of the Estate of James C. Knipple, et al., the other from Joseph and Marie Boulos, Personal Representatives of the Estate of Jeffrey Joseph Boulos) on May 6 and July 17, 2002.[18] Iran denied responsibility for the attack[19] but did not file any response to the claims of the families.[18] On December 18, 2002, Judge Royce C. Lamberth entered defaults against defendants in both cases.[18]

On May 30, 2003, Lamberth found Iran legally responsible for providing Hezbollah with financial and logistical support that helped them carry out the attack.[18][20] Lamberth concluded that the court had personal jurisdiction over the defendants under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, that Hezbollah was formed under the auspices of the Iranian government and was completely reliant on Iran in 1983, and that Hezbollah carried out the attack in conjunction with MOIS agents.[18]

On September 7, 2007, Lamberth awarded $2,656,944,877 to the plaintiffs. The judgment was divided up among the victims; the largest award was $12 million, to Larry Gerlach, became a quadriplegic as a result of a broken neck he suffered in the attack.[21]

The attorney for the families of the victims uncovered some new information, including a National Security Agency (NSA) intercept of a message sent from Iranian intelligence headquarters in Tehran to Hojjat ol-eslam Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi, the Iranian ambassador in Damascus. As it was paraphrased by presiding U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, "The message directed the Iranian ambassador to contact Hussein Musawi, the leader of the terrorist group Islamic Amal, and to instruct him ... 'to take a spectacular action against the United States Marines.'"[22] Musawi's Islamic Amal was a breakaway faction of the Amal Movement and an autonomous part of embryonic Hezbollah.[23]

Some in the U.S. government continue to hold that culpability in the Marine barracks attack is undetermined. In 2001, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger stated: "But we still do not have the actual knowledge of who did the bombing of the Marine barracks at the Beirut Airport, and we certainly didn't then."[9]

[edit] Terrorism classification

The bombing was categorised by the United States as an act of terrorism.[24]:191 Under international law, peacekeepers are regarded as non-combatants due to their peacekeeping role, but in Lebanon the U.S. Marines had become allied with the Maronite Christians and were actively engaging in battles, thus waiving their non-combatant status.[24]:191 The U.S. still categorised this attack as an act of terror as it was directed against off-duty servicemen, which the U.S. defines as non-combatants. However, no international law defines sleeping or off-duty servicemen as non-combatants.[24]:191

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah (1997), p.89-90
  2. ^ Lamberth, Royce C., U.S. District Judge. "Memorandum Opinion in Peterson v. Iran and Boulos v. Iran" (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  3. ^ Hospital ships in the war on terror: sanctuaries or targets? | Naval War College Review | Find Articles at BNET
  4. ^ "1st Parachute Regiment, Third Company". French Army. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.
  5. ^ a b "Part 8 - Casualty Handling". Report of the DoD Commission on Beirut International Airport Terrorist Act, October 23, 1983. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  6. ^ Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, 2001, p.72
  7. ^ "French Troops Heard Blast at Marine Headquarters, Then . . ." The Associated Press, October 30, 1983.
  8. ^ "Hezbollah's Global Reach" (PDF). Joint Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia of the Committee on Internation Relations. House of Representatives, 109th Congress (2006-09-28). Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  9. ^ a b c Weinberger, Caspar. "Interview: Caspar Weinberger", PBS Frontline. 
  10. ^ Bates, John D. (Presiding) (September 2003). "Anne Dammarell et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran" (PDF). The United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
  11. ^ quote from FBIS, August 1994, quoted in Ranstorp, Hizb’allah in Lebanon (1997), p.38
  12. ^ statement from November 22, 1983. Wright, Sacred Rage, (2001), p.99
  13. ^ statement from December 1983, from Wright, Sacred Rage, (2001), p.99
  14. ^ "1983: Beirut blasts kill US and French troops", On this Day — October 23, BBC. Retrieved on 2007-09-30. 
  15. ^ Goldberg, Jeffrey (October 14, 2002). "A Reporter At Large: In The Party Of God (Part I) — Are terrorists in Lebanon preparing for a larger war?", The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2007-09-30. 
  16. ^ Morley, Jefferson (July 17, 2006). "What Is Hezbollah?", Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-09-30. 
  17. ^ Jaber, Hala. Hezbollah : born with a vengeance, New York : Columbia University Press, c1997. p.82
  18. ^ a b c d e f g "Memorandum Opinion (Royce C. Lambert, judge), Deborah D. Peterson, Personal Representative of the Estate of James C. Knipple, et al., v. the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al. (Civil Action No. 01-2684 (RCL)) and Joseph and Marie Boulos, Personal Representatives of the Estate of Jeffrey Joseph Boulos v. the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al. (2003).
  19. ^ "Iran must pay $2.6 billion for attack on U.S. Marines, judge rules." CNN 7 September 2007.
  20. ^ "Iran responsible for 1983 Marine barracks bombing, judge rules. CNN 30 May 2003.
  21. ^ "Kessler>"Kessler, Glenn. "Iran Must Pay $2.6 Billion for '83 Attack." Washington Post 8 September 8, 2007.
  22. ^ Timmerman, Kenneth R. (December 22, 2003). "Invitation to September 11". Insight on the News. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  23. ^ "Lebanon: Islamic Amal". Country Studies. Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  24. ^ a b c Oded Lowenheim (2006). Predators and Parasites: Persistent Agents of Transnational Harm and Great Power Authority. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472069535. 

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