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 RAF hospital in Cyprus or to U.S. and German hospitals in West Germany.
In the attack on the American barracks, the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and 3 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 the
French since the end of the Algerian war.[1] In addition, the elderly Lebanese custodian of the Marines' building was killed in the first blast. The wife
and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building also were killed.
This was the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima (2,500 in one day) of World War II and
the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the 243 killed on 31st January 1968 — the first day of the Tet offensive in the
Vietnam war. The attack remains the deadliest post-World War II attack on Americans overseas.
Response
President Ronald Reagan called the attack a "despicable act" and pledged to keep a military force in Lebanon. Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger 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 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 air strike in the Beqaa Valley against Iranian Revolutionary Guard 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.[5] But Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger aborted the mission, reportedly because of his
concerns that it would harm U.S. relations with other Arab nations.
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.
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; the rest of the MNF was withdrawn by April.
Aftermath
While opinion is not unanimous, the bombing is thought to have been commited by the Lebanese Shia militant militia and political party Hezbollah
while it was still "underground." (Hezbollah went public in 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."
At the time of the bomging, several radical Shiite 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.
The U.S. government believes that elements that would eventually become Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, were responsible for this bombing,
as well as the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have denied any involvement.
Author Hala Jaber claims that Iran and Syria helped organize the bombing which was run by two Lebanonese 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. Meeting were held at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. They were usually chaired by the
ambassador, Hoffatoleslam 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.
However, some in the U.S. government claim it is unclear who is responsible for the Marine barracks attack. For example in 2001 the 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."
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 U.S.
Department of State.
In May 2003, in a case brought by the families of the 241 servicemen who were killed, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth declared that the
Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for the 1983 attack. Lamberth concluded that Hezbollah was formed under the auspices of the Iranian
government, was completely reliant on Iran in 1983, and assisted Iranian Ministry of Information and Security agents in carrying out the operation. Among
the intelligence information initially uncovered by Thomas Fortune Fay, an attorney for the families of the victims, was 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.'" Musawi's
Islamic Amal was a breakaway faction of the Amal Movement and the autonomous part of embroyonic Hezbollah.
In his book By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer, Victor Ostrovsky claims that Mossad knew in advance of the attack
but did not warn the United States.[12] There have been claims that Israel wanted U.S. and French troops to leave Lebanon so it could freely operate in
Lebanon without restriction.
Bombing of US Marine Barracks - Aftermath Pictures - These pictures are incredible and tell of the devastation and lives taken.
Targets: Multinational Force barracks, Beirut, Lebanon
Date: 23 October 1983 6:20 am
Attack Type: Suicide Bombing
Deaths: 299 Military Personnel, 6 Civilians, 2 Suicide Bombers
Injured: 75
Perpetrator(s): Unknown
stone marking the gravesite sits along side a Lebanese cedar symbolizing the nation is which they died.
Nicholas Baker, Corporal, United States Marine Corps - 3 July 1962
Alvin Bemer, Sergeant, United States Maine Corps - 10 March 1954
David L. Daugherty, Corporal, United States Marine Corps - 28 October 1959
Roy L. Edwards, Sergeant, United States Marine Corps - 5 November 1941
Robert B. Greaser, Sergeant, United States Marine Corps - 29 July 1960
David M. Green, Corporal, United States Marine Corps - 16 July 1963
Maurice E. Hukill, First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps - 26 November 1957
James Chandonnet Knipple, Corporal, United States Marine Corps- 9 November 1962
John W. Macroglou, Major, United States Marine Corps - 23 August 1949
David J. Nairn, First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps - 17 June 1960
Thomas S. Perron, Corporal, United States Marine Corps - 5 October 1964
John Arthur Phillips, Jr., Sergeant, United States Marine Corps - 22 April 1960
Clyde Wayne Plymel, First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps 8 December 1958
Patrick K. Prindeville, Sergeant, United States Marine Corps - 31 March 1960
Diomedes J. Quirante, HM-3, United States Navy - 6 September 1958
Charles J. Schnorf, First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps - 28 July 1959
Thomas A. Shipp, Corporal, United States Marine Corps - 4 September 1955
Horace R. Stephens, Jr., Private First Class, United States Marine Corps - 23 July 1963
Eric Glenn Washington, Corporal, United States Marine Corps - 12 May 1955
Donald E. Woollett, First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps - 23 February 1958
David Edward Worley, HM-3, United States Navy - 26 January 1958
Rest in Peace - Forever Young A tribute to the men and women and especially my husband who survived this vicious embassy attack, watched death
as it occurred and mourned the loss of many of his friends. 24 years ago this month, we remember those who paid the
ultimate sacrifice and in their honor, the Star Award will be endowed in their memory forever. Ironically, our daughter Julia
was born on October 22 which makes this day unforgetable for the rest of our lives and extra meaningful.
May God Bless the Survivors!