The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York (2024)

October 23, 2003

Publication:

The Buffalo Newsi

Location:

Buffalo, New York

Issue Date:

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Page:

5

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

The Buffalo NewsThursday October 23 2003 Page A 5 20th anniversary of Beirut blast renews questions of US endurance By DONNA ABU NASR Associated Press BEIRUT Lebanon In the United Stales' first encounter with suicide bomb ings its embassy then its Marine barracks were blasted to shreds The truckload of explosives that killed 241 troops at the bar racks 20 years ago today launched a new era in the Middle East The reverberations still arc being felt Today the 19 year old soldier on duty at Beirut airport's Parking Lot shrugs indif ferently when told the doomed barracks once stood at that location He even born when the bomb went off Oct 23 1983 or many others the blast is a dis tant memory one of scores of atrocities during Lebanon's 1975 to 1990 civil war But for the United States it became a watershed It ultimately drove the US military out of Lebanon A decade later American forces pulled out of Somalia their mission again wrecked by violence Today as US casualties mount in Iraq some are asking whether the United States will walk away again No way insists President Bush terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans we will run from a he said recently this they are Nobody professes to know for sure just who was behind the bombings of 1983 Islamic Jihad a shadowy group believed made up of Shiites loyal to Iran's late Aya tollah Ruhollah Khomeini claimed re sponsibility Generally Hezbollah was thought to be behind the attacks Hezbollah leaders deny it linad Mughniyeh security chief at the time is on an BI wanted list with a $25 million bounty on his head but for a different attack: the June 1985 hijack ing of a TWA airliner at Beirut airport in which a US Navy diver was killed and the passengers were held for 17 days American intelligence officials describe Mughniyeh as operations chief One official who spoke on the con dition of anonymity said counterterrorism authorities have a fix on his location but acknowledged reports he had been sighted in Lebanon Iran and Syria US authorities say they believe he re mains active in plotting terrorist attacks but provided little detail In May a federal judge in Washington blamed Iran for the 1983 barracks bomb ing and said Tehran would have to pay damages to survivors and relatives 'I he judge ruling in a lawsuit filed by 153 fami lies said Hezbollah carried out the attack with the approval and funding of senior Iranian officials The Marines had come as peacekeepers to a country reeling from an Israeli inva sion and occupation and the massacre at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla perpetrated by Chris tian Lebanese allies But the Americans got drawn into the conflict on the side of the Christian led government while Iran then in lull anti American fury supported Hezbollah the Shiite guerrilla group fighting tire Israelis The Americans already had suffered a sharp terrorist blow in April 1983 when a Shiite Muslim suicide bomber rammed an explosives packed van into the seaside US Embassy in Beirut killing 63 people including 17 Americans The US soldiers who came six months later with a multinational force weren't the only victims of the bombing offensive On the day the Marines were attacked a sepa rate and simultaneous blast killed 58 rench paratroopers The multinational force came to over see the removal of Israeli Syrian and Pal estinian forces from Beirut But in Leba non as in Iraq today the Americans en countered populations with deep ethnic or religious differences and neighboring gov ernments intent on influencing events Edward Walker a senior State De partment official at the time said the Ma rine bombing had a negative because it convinced the United Slates to withdraw long term implications of that was it appeared to terrorists that all you have to do is hurt the Americans and you will get what you said Walker Hezbollah talk about Mughniyeh and a Lebanese official said no one has the military arm of managed to provide any proof he was in volved in the barracks bombing Bombskill Associated Press a Si I THE NEWS Vol CCXLV1I No 13 BUY ONE OR $39" atier ma! in rebate A 0 1 800 81 1 7600 fB any of our stores AUTHORIZED RETAILERS Lqinpmenl otter rrujy vary BUSINESS CUSTOMERS PLEASE CALL 1 888 21 1 3248 INAL 'fi Drtve responsibly Call with cm so confident prefer our service to any other if you're not 100 satisfied during the first 15 days simply return your phone and pay only for the service you've used Guaranteed Home Delivery Ur Idehvui ed or damaged paper? 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northeast of Baghdad the US command said The death brings to 105 the number of soldiers killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1 The two Iraqi guards were killed in a bombing near an oil pipeline 150 miles north of the capital US officials said Ten other members of the Iraqi Civil Defense orce were wounded by the blast In allujah a paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division was wounded by a blast from an impro vised bomb US officials said In Baghdad Iraqi police acting on a lip from an informant found a car packed with explosives and ar rested a Syrian who confessed to PUBLIC SERVICES: Back Copies General Office Market Research LG VX3100 ultra light 314 by HAMBURG McKinley Mall 822 4381 4154 McKinley Pkwy 648 4442 NIAGARA ALLS 2490 Military Rd 298 1888 WILLIAMSVILLE 6733 Transit Rd 632 9750 SAVE $20 ON OUR MOST POPULAR ACCESSORY PACKAGE Includes headset car charger and leather case The suspect told police he had been given money to plant the ex 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