On this day in ...... 1984 (25 years ago today), at least 20 persons died and dozens more were injured when a explosion at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, "ripped off" the front of the 6-week-old, 5-story building (right). Setting off the suicide bomb, according to the BBC, was "a member of the extremist group, the Islamic Jihad," who "drove at high speed up the main drive of the consulate in a truck containing 500 kg (1,102 lb) of high explosive." U.S. Ambassador Reginald Bartholomew "was buried under rubble" but survived.
(Prior September 20 posts are here and here.)
