'We have prepared ourselves for all kinds of war. For many months, tens of
thousands have volunteered to serve as martyrdom-seekers (suicide
attackers) in the battle with the American enemy,'' he said. ''We trained
them and readied them. We have prepared ourselves for street fighting and
desert fighting.''
The biggest suicide bombing against the U.S. military abroad was in Lebanon
when a truck packed with explosives drove into the U.S. Marine base at
Beirut International Airport and exploded in the early morning Oct. 23,
1983, as the troops slept. The attack killed 241 American servicemen and
leveled the base. Simultaneously, a Beirut base for French soldiers was
attacked by another suicide bomber, killing 58 paratroopers.
The Americans and the French were in Lebanon as part of an ill-fated
peacekeeping mission to end Lebanon's civil war. Iranian-backed Shiite
Muslim militants were blamed for the attacks.
In 1996, a truck bomb at the U.S. Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia
killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
