Kerry on 30th anniversary of Embassy Bombing: Hezbollah underestimated our resolve

    
On the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, US secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement whereby he hailed the close relations now enjoyed with Lebanon and the close cooperation with the Lebanese people, which prove the “enemies of democracy have failed”.            

“As we reflect on that day, we also remember another terrorist attack later that year against the US Marine Barracks in Beirut, as well as a third attack on the Beirut Embassy a year later,” the statement added.         

They underestimated the resolve of the United States and Lebanon, he said, referring to Hezbollah and “other terrorist organizations who had hoped through these attacks to deter the US from maintaining its strong relationship with Lebanon and safeguarding the country’s stability and sovereignty”.                 
His statements also come in the wake of the Boston bombing whom Kerry said had renewed his country’s resolve in fighting acts of terrorism.

On April 18, 1983, sixty three people, mostly CIA and embassy staff, soldiers and marines, were killed in the deadliest attack on a US diplomatic mission up to that time. The explosion occurred after a car bomb detonated by a suicide bomber driving a delivery van packed with about 910 kg of explosives gained access to the compound and parked at the very front of the building where it exploded.

A pro-Iranian group by the name of the Islamic Jihad Organization took responsibility for the bombing in a telephone call to a news office immediately after the blast.

In 2003, Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court in Washington determined that the bombing was carried out by Hezbollah with the approval and financing of senior Iranian officials.