France asks Lebanon to question 2 suspects in deadly 1983 bombing
Lebanese judicial officials said on Wednesday that French authorities have asked Lebanese prosecutors to detain two men suspected of involvement in a 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed dozens of French soldiers.
There is little chance that Lebanese authorities will detain the suspects nearly 40 years after the attacks. Neither has ever been taken into custody.
The request identified the two suspects as Yousef al-Khalil and Sana al-Khalil and called on the Lebanese prosecutor’s office to detain and interrogate them, then inform French authorities about the results. It was not immediately clear if the two are related.
On October 23, 1983, suicide car bombers simultaneously blew up a US Marine base and French paratroopers headquarters in Beirut, killing 241 American soldiers and 58 French soldiers.
American and French troops had been deployed to Lebanon a year earlier as part of a multinational force following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
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A doctor treats a wounded French soldier after being wounded in a massive car bomb attack on a building housing French contingents of peacekeeping forces in Beirut, October 23, 1983. (AP Photo/Nagi, File)
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Islamic Jihad, a pro-Iranian Shiite group, claimed responsibility for the 1983 attacks, which marked the beginning of the end for Western efforts to stop Lebanon’s 1975–90 civil war. Several months later, peacekeeping forces of US, French, British and Italian troops left Lebanon.
Islamic Jihad was believed to be linked to Hezbollah, although Hezbollah officials have denied this.
The judicial officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as per rules, did not say whether the two were members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah. The request did not say whether the two were still alive, the officials said, without giving further details.
In 1997, Lebanese authorities ordered an investigation of two men for possible links to the suicide bombings of American and French military bases in the first legal action in the case. The two men police were ordered to investigate at the time were Hassan Ezzedine and Ali Atawi, who are believed to have been senior security officials in the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah in the 1980s. The men were never taken into custody.
