Modern Era · Middle East · War
1983
Beirut barracks bombing
October 23, 1983
A suicide truck bomber drove into the US Marine compound at Beirut airport and detonated twelve thousand pounds of explosives. Two hundred forty-one American servicemen died in their beds. A second bomb killed fifty-eight French paratroopers nearby. Within months Reagan quietly withdrew US forces. Suicide bombing had announced itself as a weapon.
In context
Also in 1983 (3 other events on record)
- Petrov averts nuclear war · Europe · War
- KAL 007 shot down · East Asia · Disaster
- US invades Grenada · North America · War
Before and after in Middle East
Before and after in War
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.