Skip directly to content

24th Marine Amphibious Unit

In Memoriam: The 30th Anniversary of the Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing

on Tue, 11/12/2013 - 16:43

By Bryan J Dickerson* and Steven D Mercatante*

On the morning of Sunday 23 October 1983, the city of Beirut, Lebanon was rocked by two powerful explosions.  Suicide bombers sponsored by Iran and Syria detonated two massive truck bombs outside the barracks of U.S. Marine and French Army peacekeepers, killing 299 and wounding nearly a hundred.  Thirty years later, we remember the incident that led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon .

In August 1982, troops from the United States, France and Italy deployed to Beirut, Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission.  U.S.