U.S. Embassy Bombing, Beirut

The April 18, 1983, suicide bombing attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killed 63 people in a blast so powerful it shook the USS Guadalcanal, anchored five miles away. The attack was followed by the bombing of U.S. Marine and French military barracks in October of that year. The double horror of these disasters led to a drop in public support of the U.S. military presence in Lebanon and hastened the withdrawal of U.S. and western European troops from the country. The U.S. forces had initially entered war-torn Lebanon in August 1982 as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, which included French, Italian, and British personnel. The peacekeepers intended to negotiate a cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel, who had invaded the country two months prior.

On the afternoon of April 18, a Chevrolet pickup truck, packed with about 2,000 pounds of explosives, sped through the gate of the U.S. embassy in West Beirut and struck the building. The resulting blast killed 46 Lebanese and 17 Americans, including one American journalist and every CIA station chief in the Middle East; 120 others were injured. Islamic Jihad, a group linked to the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, or “Party of God,” claimed responsibility for the act.

U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

(USMC photo)

Six months later, the tragedy was repeated when another suicide bomb attack, this time on the Beirut U.S. Marine Base and French military headquarters, killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French paratroopers. This incident was also linked to Islamic Jihad. Five months following the second attack, the Lebanese government authority in West Beirut collapsed. In February 1984, U.S. officials announced the withdrawal of the U.S. [Page 614]troops, followed shortly thereafter by the pullout of Italian, British, and French troops.