Suicidal bombers struck two devastating blows against the multinational peace-keeping force in Beirut yesterday killing at least 146 American marines and 27 French paratroopers.
The atrocity brought forceful condemnation from the US where the Defence Secretary, Casper Weinberger, accused Iran of masterminding the attacks. But a fearful Lebanese government sees the hand of Iran╒s ally Syria in the bombing and fears that the recent agreement on an all-party conference among Lebanon╒s warring parties in Switzerland will be swept away by the confrontation between Washington and Damascus.
The attacks came within minutes of each other shortly after 6am, when terrorists drove bomb-laden lorries into the four-storey marine headquarters at the international airport and a nine-storey block of flats used by the French Army one mile away.
Both buildings collapsed completely, leaving badly injured troops trapped in a tangle of concrete and metal. Many could be heard screaming beneath the wreckage hours after the blasts as cranes and mechanical diggers tore at the rubble in a mostly futile effort to free the men alive.
The marines, whose 1,600-strong force has spearheaded the multinational contingent in Lebanon for just over one year, took the brunt of the casualties. At 6.15am a lorry with a single driver began a high-speed run at the old airport administration building which had been turned into a dormitory for the troops.
The lorry swerved through a car park past two marine guard positions and demolished a sandbagged emplacement before smashing through a grill and coming to rest in the lobby of the building. The driver immediately detonated an estimated 2,000 lbs of explosives reducing the building to 30 foot of rubble.
As helicopters lifted off from the Sixth Fleet ships at anchor half a mile off-shore, another suicidal terrorist repeated the method of attack against the French paratroopers╒ positions.
It was 6.22am when a medium-sized lorry roared past paratroop sentries and wedged itself in the door of the apartment block before exploding. The structure moved sideways and collapsed like a house of cards according to shocked residents in the neighbourhood.
Hours later a mechanical digger was still turning over blood-splashed slabs of concrete to extricate survivors from the wreckage. But despite the furious search and the initial moans of those trapped in the rubble most of the wounded died before they could be freed.
French troops, grey-faced with shock, worked alongside Lebanese colleagues, but as dusk fell little hope remained for those still in the wreckage.
The Pentagon said last night that at least 146 Americans had died and more than 69 had been injured in the blast and evacuated for treatment in West Germany and the British airbase at Akrotiri, Cyprus. Lebanese security sources said that 27 French troops had died, although the Defence Ministry in Paris confirmed only nine deaths, 11 wounded and 53 still missing. France has 2,000 troops in Lebanon, Britain 100, and Italy 2,100. The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Bettino Craxi, said last night that his contingent would remain in spite of the ╥vile attack╙.
