ABSTRACT
ON MARCH 8, 1985, a man slowly drove a car packed with explosives along a West Beirut street and parked a few yards away from a five-story apartment building. Women and children were exiting Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Minutes later the car bomb exploded with the force of 440 pounds of dynamite. It nearly leveled the apartment complex and two nearby seven-story buildings. Lebanese militiamen fired AK-47 rounds into the air to clear the streets and allow ambulances to pass. Hospitals quickly filled with the dead and dying. The bombers murdered at least 80 people that day and injured over 200. It was the largest bombing in Lebanon since the attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in 1983. 1
