![]() ![]() Many reports contend that this group would eventually grow into Hezbollah – the Lebanese Shia group backed by Iran and Syria. “That’s how I was able to be present inside before they closed the whole site to press and photographers.”Ī then little-known Iranian-backed group calling itself Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing as it did for the deadly truck bomb attack on the French military barracks of the MNF the same morning. “When I heard the blast on the road outside the base, I immediately headed back,” recalls Sabbagh, now 58, who said he had left the camp about 15-20 minutes before the explosion. The events of that day, 35 years ago, remain fresh in the mind of Sabbagh, who was the first photojournalist on the scene of the bombing, which took place at 6:22am. Two suicide bombers detonated truck bombs at the French and US barracks Another six Lebanese civilians were also killed in the twin attack. A second bombing at the French contingent killed 58 peacekeepers. Of the men stationed there, 241 US service personnel were crushed to death in the rubble. ![]() The guards on early morning duty stood no chance as the vehicle’s driver detonated his cargo on the ground floor of the headquarters. “And I saw there was nothing particularly happening – so I decided to leave the US base in the very early morning.”Īs the Marines slept soundly in their bunks – or began to rouse themselves from another unpredictable night in the restive Lebanese capital – the base at Beirut International Airport was shattered by a massive blast.Ī truck laden with explosives – later estimated to be the equivalent of 12,000 pounds of TNT – had rammed the BLT after crashing through the compound’s fortified perimeter. ![]() “I was sleeping in the foxhole and it wasn’t really pleasant,” recalled Sabbagh, then a 23-year-old shooter for United Press International (UPI). In a city that had rained bullets and bombs since Lebanon’s bloody civil war had erupted in 1975, Sabbagh gathered his belongings to explore outside the camp. ![]() The Lebanese photojournalist had slept in a foxhole at the BLT’s location of the American military compound – home to the US Marines from the Multinational Peacekeeping Force (MNF) – and all was quiet. Early morning on Sunday, October 23, 1983, Pierre Sabbagh awoke from an uncomfortable night’s sleep in the grounds of the US Battalion Landing Team (BLT) headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. ![]()
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