"HOLY WAR" to Sweep the Middle East? - Gene H Hogberg - March 1984

Gene H Hogberg

Western embassies and military compounds are now prime targets for explosives-laden trucks. In the Persian Gulf, Arab nations brace for surging tide of religious fervor. Where is the Middle East headed? About one year ago - on .April 18, 1983-a suicide truck bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 63 people. It was to be a grim omen. Six months later, early Sunday morning, October 23, two horrendous explosions minutes apart flattened the American and French command posts in Lebanon. The death toll: 241 U.S. Marines and 59 French paratroopers. It was the worst single-day loss of life for American military personnel since Korean War days. For the French the loss was the greatest setback since the fighting in the Algerian War of Independence in the late 1950s. The spectacular eruptions were the direct result of explosives-laden trucks driven into the compounds by drivers willing to commit suicide in the process. Then on November 4, less than two weeks after the combined assault on the U.S. and French forces, a suicide bomber struck at the Israeli military post in the Lebanese port of Tyre, killing 61 people. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library