A look back at the deadly 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut
Remembering the bombing attack that killed more than 200 Marines.
ByABC News
October 23, 2017, 4:24 PM
British soldiers assist in rescue operations at the site of the bomb-wrecked U.S. Marine command center near the Beirut airport in Lebanon, Oct. 23, 1983. A bomb-laden truck drove into the center collapsing the entire four story building.
Bill Foley/AP Photo
— -- Vice President Mike Pence marked the anniversary of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, during a visit to the Marine barracks in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 23, 2017. Pence described the bombing as the first battle in the nation's ongoing war against terrorism.
Rescuers probe the wreckage of the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut airport, a day after a suicide truck bombing, Oct. 24, 1983. In the background can be seen the control tower of the Beirut airport. The blast claimed the lives of 241 American service members.
Bouzouki/AP Photo
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan sent the Marines on a peacekeeping mission to Lebanon, a country racked by civil war. The following year a truck filled with 2,000 pounds of explosives drove into the U.S. military compound near Beirut airport and detonated.
British soldiers assist in rescue operations at the site of the bomb-wrecked U.S. Marine command center near the Beirut airport in Lebanon, Oct. 23, 1983. A bomb-laden truck drove into the center collapsing the entire four story building.
Bill Foley/AP Photo
The attack killed 241 service members, including 220 Marines.
A U.S. Marine rests, Oct. 25, 10983, at the site of a truck bombing that leveled the Marine command center on Oct. 23. The Marine was part of the search team.
Bill Foley/AP Photo
It was the deadliest attack on U.S. Marines since the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. That same day, another truck of explosives killed 58 French soldiers in the city.
U.S. Marines search for survivors and bodies in the rubble of their barracks headquarters in Beirut, Oct. 24, 1983, the day after a truck with 2,000 lbs of explosives was driven into the building and detonated.
Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images
U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Paul Kelley awards the Purple Heart to Marines wounded in the Oct. 23, 1983 terrorist bombing in Beirut during a ceremony at the Wiesbaden Air Force hospital in Germany on Oct. 25. At right (from back to front) Renard Manley (Panama City, Fla.), Michael Balcon (Vernon, N.Y.), Elvin H. Henry (Columbia, S.C.) and Pedro J. Alvaredo (Ponce, Puerto Rico).
Udo Weitz/AP Photo
U.S. forces withdrew from Lebanon in Feb. 1984. The Hezbollah is believed to be responsible for the attack, with the support of the Iranian government.
