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 against the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

On the Sunday morning of the attack, an explosive-laden vehicle drove into each military headquarters. The two explosions went off seconds apart, completely destroying their targets. For the U.S. military, the death toll was the largest single-day loss since the Vietnam War.

U.S. officials initially said that the bombing was planned by Iranian and Syrian intelligence services, but both countries denied the charges. Shortly thereafter, Hezbollah took responsibility for the massacre. It also claimed responsibility for the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in West Beirut.

The 1983 Beirut bombings are said to have brought the American military presence in Lebanon to an end. After the collapse of Lebanese government authority in western Beirut in February 1984, the last U.S. troops left Lebanon, followed [Page 388]shortly by the remaining French, British, and Italian troops.

U.S. Marine sniper sights through the scope of his rifle on the perimeter of the Marine compound near Beirut International Airport. A few days after this photograph was taken, a massive truck bomb destroyed the Marines barracks, killing more than 200 American soldiers.

Defense Visual Information Center.