Forty years ago, on Oct. 23, 1983, at precisely 6:41 in the morning, local time, a dramatic event unfurled. a yellow Mercedes Benz truck passed all the American and French military inspections and targeted the headquarters of the rapid reaction forces of the US and French Marines near Beirut with several tons of explosives. As a result, more than 241 Americans, including 220 Marines, were killed, and hundreds more were injured, some of whom never returned to military service.
Regarding the amount of explosive materials that were placed in this truck, everyone has a story, but whatever it was, its weight has been said to be up to 5 tons. However, according to Western experts themselves, these materials were very professionally and precisely placed in the yellow truck to have the maximum result. Minutes after this explosion, the French paratroopers’ base in Ramlet was also targeted, in which 58 French soldiers were killed, dozens more were injured, and again, no one understood what was going on.
The responsibility for this attack was taken by a group called Islamic Jihad, and the Westerners, despite all their efforts, never recognized the individuals behind the scenes of this attack and, despite making a flood of accusations towards Iran, no document or evidence based on Iran’s intervention and its affiliates in this attack was found. This attack was the bloodiest and most unprecedented attack that had occurred until that day against the American and French Marines who had come to provide coverage for the Zionist occupiers in Lebanon, and eventually led to their exit from Lebanon and a prelude to repelling the Zionist occupiers from Lebanon.
America and France had deployed troops to Lebanon under the guise of United Nations peacekeeping forces to provide substantial time and space for the Zionist regime, which had occupied half of the country, to continue its occupation and establish its military and security structures in southern Lebanon. In essence, America and France paid a bloody price for supporting the aggressions and occupations of this regime, and the memory of this attack will never be erased from the minds and memories of the Americans.
Teams from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), investigating regional files, always worked with a “personal” motive against those they held responsible for this attack. Hence, in some reports by CIA officers, some written by former intelligence analysts, it is stated that “pursuing Imad Mughniyeh was personal.” Washington also accused the martyred Hajj Radwan of playing a role in the attack on the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983, which resulted in the destruction of the entire CIA station and the death of the head of the Middle East branch of the agency, and his involvement in the abduction and disappearance of CIA station chief, William Buckley, in 1984, who was sent to Beirut in 1983 to establish a new station for the agency after the destruction of the previous one.
A senior CIA official said: Buckley’s arrest led to the cessation of CIA activities in the country. Donald Rumsfeld, who was the US envoy to Lebanon during Reagan’s term, later referred to this attack as the “Death Smile” in a book, writing: “It was the biggest attack on Americans before September 11.”
Now, on the fortieth anniversary of that successful and historic attack, the US Secretary of State says that if necessary, America will enter the war in the region to help the Israeli regime. Apparently, Antony Blinken, who is Jewish, either forgets how Lebanon became the grave of American soldiers, or the lives of American soldiers are worthless to a Jewish Secretary of State in the White House, just like the occupying Zionists in Palestine, or the truth is that American officials also consider supporting the Zionist regime more important than defending American interests.
At the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle, the US Secretary of Defense announced the deployment of 2,000 marines in the occupied territories to support the Zionist regime. Forces that, according to him, were not for warfare, but for supporting and comforting Israeli soldiers who, confused by the heavy Palestinian resistance attack, were looking for a supporter. However, a non-military mission can quickly turn into a widespread military attack and participation in an unwanted war, and the Zionists are masters at doing such things, causing terror.