April 1983 United States Embassy bombing

1983 U.S. Embassy bombing
Part of the Lebanese Civil War
US Embassy 3 days after the bombing
Location	33°54′5″N 35°29′6″E / 33.90139°N 35.48500°E / 33.90139; 35.48500Coordinates: 33°54′5″N 35°29′6″E / 33.90139°N 35.48500°E / 33.90139; 35.48500 United States Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon
Date	April 18, 1983 1:03 p.m.
Attack type	Suicide car bomb
Deaths	63 (+1 suicide bomber)
Non-fatal injuries	120
Perpetrators	Islamic Jihad Organization (claimed responsibility) Hezbollah (court finding)

The April 18, 1983, United States embassy bombing was a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several U.S. soldiers and one U.S. Marine Security Guard. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission up to that time, and is considered the beginning of Islamist attacks on U.S. targets.

The attack came in the wake of an intervention in the Lebanese Civil War by the U.S. and other Western countries, which sought to restore order and central government authority.

The car bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber driving a delivery van packed with about 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of explosives at approximately 1:00 p.m. (GMT+2) April 18, 1983. The van, originally sold in Texas, bought used and shipped to the Gulf, gained access to the embassy compound and parked under the portico at the very front of the building, where it exploded. Former CIA operative Robert Baer's account says that the van broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the lobby door and exploded there. The blast collapsed the entire central facade of the horseshoe-shaped building, leaving the wreckage of balconies and offices in heaped tiers of rubble, and spewing masonry, metal and glass fragments in a wide swath. The explosion was heard throughout West Beirut and broke windows as far as a mile away. Rescue workers worked around the clock, unearthing the dead and wounded.

Robert S. Dillon, then Ambassador to Lebanon, recounted the attack in his oral history:

A total of 63 people were killed in the bombing: 32 Lebanese employees, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passersby. Of the Americans killed, eight worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, including the CIA's top Middle East analyst and Near East director, Robert Ames, Station Chief Kenneth Haas, James Lewis and most of the Beirut staff of the CIA. Others killed included William R. McIntyre, deputy director of the United States Agency for International Development, two of his aides, and four U.S. military personnel. Lebanese victims included clerical workers at the embassy, visa applicants waiting in line and nearby motorists and pedestrians. An additional 120 or so people were wounded in the bombing.