U.S. Marine Barracks Bombing, Beirut

On October 23, 1983, 241 American and 58 French service personnel were killed and many more [Page 387]wounded in two suicide bombings that destroyed the U.S. Marine Base and French military headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. The attack is widely thought to have hastened the end of American military involvement in Lebanon.

An American Marine stands guard over the remains of the U.S. embassy in Beirut. A terrorist drove the truck carrying the 2,000-lb bomb into the front of the seven-story building.

Defense Visual Information Center.

American Marines landed in Beirut during the summer of 1982 as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. They, along with British, French, and Italian military personnel, were sent during U.S.-brokered negotiations between Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. When the multinational troops arrived, both Israeli and Syrian forces occupied Lebanon, fighting on opposite sides of the civil war that pitted Lebanese militia groups ...