April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing

On April 18, 1983, a delivery van driven by a suicide bomber and carrying about 400 pounds of explosives drove up to the United States Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. It parked under the portico at the very front of the building, where it exploded. The front section of the embassy collapsed, killing 63 people. Seventeen of these were Americans, and eight of them worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. More than a hundred others were wounded.

The attack was motivated by the American intervention in the Lebanese Civil War. American troops had landed to try and restore order to the war ravaged country, and to prevent the country falling to communism or Muslim extremists. Many groups within Lebanon were opposed to the American presence but it is the militant group Hezbollah--under the code name "Islamic Jihad"--that is believed to have been responsible for the attacks. Some also suspect the OLP and extremists communists may have played a role.

The deadliest attack on a US diplomatic mission up to that time left many wondering what would come next. Just six months later, 241 US servicemen would be dead after another truck bombing. And 18 months after the first embassy attack, in September 1984, a car bomb hit the new, more secure US Embassy in East Beirut, killing 2 Americans and 20 Lebanese. After these attacks the American troops were pulled out of Lebanon by President Ronald Reagan.

Along with the Marine Barracks Bombing, the incident prompted the Inman Report, a review of overseas security for the US Department of State.