Marines Fall to Truck Bomb: Beirut Claims 241 Lives
A Mercedes truck loaded with 12,000 pounds of TNT drove past two guard posts and detonated inside the lobby of the U.S. Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport at 6:22 a.m. on October 23, 1983. The explosion, equivalent to 21,000 pounds of TNT, was the largest non-nuclear blast since World War II. It collapsed the four-story building into rubble fifteen feet deep. Two hundred and forty-one Marines, sailors, and soldiers died. Moments later, a second truck bomb hit the French paratrooper barracks two miles away, killing 58 French soldiers. The simultaneous attacks were orchestrated by Hezbollah with Iranian support. Reagan withdrew U.S. peacekeepers from Lebanon within four months. The bombing demonstrated that suicide truck bombs could defeat even heavily fortified military positions.
October 23, 1983
43 years ago
Key Figures & Places
France
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United States Marine Corps
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Lebanon
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Beirut
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Lebanese Civil War
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Lebanon Civil War
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1983 Beirut barracks bombing
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Lebanese Civil War
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US Marines
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1983 Beirut barracks bombings
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French Army
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Hezbollah
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Beirut, Lebanon
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Lebanon
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France
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Southern Lebanon
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United States
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