25 years ago: US bombs Libya

[Alamuti Lotus]

On April 15, 1986, the US launched an aerial blitz on Libya in supposed retaliation for terrorist attacks on US civilians in Europe over the preceding two weeks. Over 100 Libyans were killed in the bombing raids on Tripoli and Benghazi, among them perhaps two dozens civilians, including Gaddafi’s adopted infant daughter. Hundreds of civilians were wounded. Two US pilots died after their F-111 was shot down by Libyan air defenses.

Meant to undermine the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and perhaps kill him, the operation also demonstrated the isolation of the US. Italy refused the use of its military bases or airspace, and it was later documented that Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi had alerted Gaddafi of the attack two days before it took place. France—which had itself bombed a Libyan airport in Chad months earlier—refused US aircraft permission to use its airspace, forcing a considerable extension of the route for jets flying from the UK. (The French embassy in Tripoli was “accidentally” bombed in the campaign, dubbed Operation El Dorado Canyon.)

The United Nations later condemned the attack by a vote of 79 in favor and 28 against with 33 abstentions, as a “a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law." The Soviet Union, while formally condemning the attack, had behind the scenes signaled its toleration as a means of currying favor in arms negotiations with the Reagan administration.

Reagan justified the attack on Libya as retaliation for the bombing of a West Berlin disco in which two US soldiers were killed, making the operation the first US attack on an Arab country justified explicitly as a response to terrorism. “When our citizens are attacked or abused anywhere in the world on the direct orders of hostile regimes, we will respond so long as I’m in this office,” Reagan said in a nationally televised address hours after the patently illegal attack took place. Simultaneously, 3,000 miles away in Afghanistan, Washington was arming and training Islamist terrorists fighting against the Soviet-backed regime. These would later produce Al Qaeda.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/twih-a11.shtml

Other "this week in history" events on same link:
50 years ago: Bay of Pigs invasion
75 years ago: Workers on the offensive in Spain
100 years ago: Threat of foreign intervention in Mexican Revolution

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr

[PufPuf23]

2. Thank you.. kr

[dipsydoodle]

3. Asscociated topic : 50 years ago: Bay of Pigs invasion

Actual BBC News report from April 17th 1961 :

US denial

In a statement in Washington, the US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, has again denied US involvement in the invasion of Cuba.

He said the United States had not, and would not intervene in Cuba, with armed forces or otherwise.

Strong suspicions that the United States is sponsoring an offensive against the Castro government have been fuelled by the bombing of three of Cuba's military air bases two days ago.

>

But reporters who watched one of the planes land in Miami after carrying out the attack described features which indicated it was American-made.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/newsid_3394000/3394067.stm

[Gravel Democrat]

4. ^^^

(The French embassy in Tripoli was “accidentally” bombed in the campaign, dubbed Operation El Dorado Canyon.)

Well well, what a coincidence. The Chinese Embassy was "accidentally" (old maps, dontchaknow) bombed during the 78 day Non-UN approved bombing of sovereign Kosovo.

"On May 7, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (Operation Allied Force), five US JDAM bombs hit the People's Republic of China embassy in the Belgrade district of New Belgrade, killing three PRC citizens and outraging the Chinese public. President Bill Clinton later apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental. Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet testified before a congressional committee that the bombing was the only one in the campaign organized and directed by his agency.<1><2>



Late on May 8, US Defense Secretary William S Cohen and George Tenet issued a joint press release stating neither the aircrew involved nor the equipment were to blame for the incident.<10> The first attempt to explain the bombing came on May 10. William Cohen told reporters "In simple terms, one of our planes attacked the wrong target because the bombing instructions were based on an outdated map".<11> The statement made no mention of the CIA. It was subsequently revealed that the CIA possessed maps showing the embassy.<10>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._bombing_of_the_Chinese_embassy_in_Belgrade


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