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''HOLY WAR''
to
Sweep the Middle East?
by
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?
OUT
one year ago--on
April 18, 1983- a sui–
cide truck bomber at–
tacked 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 Sun–
day morning, October 23, two
horrendous explosions minutes
apart flattened the Amer ican
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 per–
sonnel 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 st ruck at
· the Israelí military post in the Leba–
nese port of Tyre, killing 61 people.
Kuwaitis Shocked
Events soon proved that this new
tactic was not to be confined to
Lebanon.
On December 12 a dump truck
packed with explosives was driven
into the U.S. Embassy compound
2
in Kuwait City, killing five people
and wounding 37, officials said. It
was one of six bombs that rocked
the Persian (or Arabian) Gulf
nation within minutes of each
other. Other targets were the
French Embassy, Kuwait airport,
an American housing complex out–
sirle of Kuwait City, an oil refinery
complex and an electrical and water
control station.
The Kuwaiti bombing highlights
a weapon- an explosives-laden
truck- and a technique-a wild
suicide rush- that threaten to over–
whelm even the most stringent
security precautions.
A decade ago, incidents directed
at diplomatic personnel were lim–
ited largely to kidnappings and
occasional assassinations of individ–
uals. Those tactics seem almost
tame in comparison to these new
methods.
Worries in Washington
Just before the Kuwaiti episode,
security was greatly stepped up at
The PLAIN TRUTH