It was a seven-story building located along the Mediterranean Sea and overlooking the sea.
It was the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. On April 18 of that year, the embassy was targeted by a newly formed Iranian-backed terrorist group.
“Lebanese police and witnesses said the embassy was blown up by 500 pounds of explosives packed into the witnesses' vehicle, described as a GMC pickup truck,” the New York Daily News reported the next day. reported.
“The massive explosion killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, eight of them CIA personnel, and injured more than 100.” Central Intelligence Agency will be mentioned later.
6 months later — October 23, 1983 — Another terrorist attack in Beirut leaves an American dead.
“A truck loaded with explosives crashed through the gate and crashed into the Marine Corps Battalion Headquarters building,” Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Robert Jordan was quoted as saying by the Daily News on the same day.
“The explosion struck a building housing a 1,200-man battalion landing team of Marine Corps Amphibious Forces stationed at Beirut International Airport,” the Daily News reported.
“The attack killed 241 people and injured 60 military personnel, most of them U.S. Marines,” the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a statement. will be mentioned later.
So who is responsible for these heinous attacks on Americans serving our country?
Posted by National Counterterrorism Center historical timeline Regarding the “operational activities” of the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Among the first actions in this timeline were Hezbollah's 1983 murders of the American embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.
On April 18, 2023, exactly 40 years since Hezbollah attacked the embassy, the State Department issued a statement “We are announcing a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and conviction of Ibrahim Akil, a key leader of Hezbollah.”
“In the 1980s, Akil was a key member of Hezbollah's Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which was responsible for the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, which killed 63 people, and the attack on the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in October 1983. He claimed responsibility for the bombing. 241 US military personnel were killed. ” said the State Department..
Hassan Nasrallah was another leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization at the time.
“Nasrallah was one of the early founders of Hezbollah.” American Jewish Committee reports. “After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Nasrallah defected with several others from Amal and formed Hezbollah ('Party of God').''
The AJC said, “During its rise to power, Hezbollah carried out a number of attacks against the United States, including a suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, and a suicide bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983. was behind several large-scale terrorist attacks targeting the hijacking of the US Embassy Annex in Beirut in September 1984 and TWA 847 in 1985; ”
On April 18, 2023, at the current U.S. Embassy in Beirut, then-Ambassador Dorothy Shea said: presided over the ceremony 40th anniversary of Hezbollah attack.
“Those who made the decision to violently kill 63 innocent people and injure families at the embassy underestimated us.” she said. “Through our continued commitment to this community and our common goals, let us prove that Hezbollah has failed in its attempts to crush us.”
But at the time, neither Akil nor Nasrallah had been tried.
When the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas launched attacks on Israel a year ago, Hezbollah immediately launched its own attacks.
“On October 7, 2023, a day after the Hamas (US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, or FTO)-led attack on Israel that started the ongoing war, Lebanon’s Hezbollah (another FTO) crossed the Lebanese border. They crossed the border and began firing rockets and missiles at Israel in a show of solidarity with Hamas. the report said From the Congressional Research Service.
“During the fighting since October 7, approximately 60,000 Israelis and 95,000 Lebanese residents have been evacuated from the border area.” CRS said.
One of the actions Israel took to protect itself from Hezbollah was CRS saidit was the “September 20th Beirut airstrike that killed Ibrahim Akil.”
“And on September 27, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut targeted Hezbollah headquarters, killing Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and other leaders,” CRS said.
in Press conference on September 30thState Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States supports Israel's move to remove Nasrallah.
“First, we support Israel's right to protect itself from terrorism, and that includes bringing brutal terrorists like Hassan Nasrallah to justice,” he said. “He is clearly someone who has attacked Israeli civilians, who has attacked American citizens, who has also attacked Syrian civilians.”
“It's true that a brutal terrorist with so much civilian blood in his veins is no longer active. That's a good outcome,” he said.
President Joe Biden also expressed support for Israel's attack on Nasrallah.
“Hassan Nasrallah and his terrorist organization Hezbollah are responsible for killing hundreds of Americans during their 40-year reign of terror.” Biden said in a written statement.. “His death in an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.”
The only regret is that it didn't happen 41 years ago.
Terence P. Jeffrey is an investigative editor at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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