Bombing of Libya

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Operation El Dorado Canyon (April 1986)

A 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft takes off to participate in an air strike on Libya.
Date April 15, 1986
Location Libya
Result Tactical U.S. Victory (disputed)
Belligerents
United States Libya
Commanders
Ronald Reagan Muammar al-Gaddafi
Casualties and losses
1 F-111
2 aircrew KIA		 3-5 IL-76 transport planes
14 Mig-23 Floggers
2 Helicopters[1]
15 Libyan civilians

The United States bombing of Libya (code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon) comprised the joint United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps air-strikes against Libya on April 15, 1986.

Contents

[edit] Origins

After years of occasional skirmishes with Libya over Libyan territorial claims to the Gulf of Sidra, and years of vulnerability to Libyan-supported terrorism, especially the Abu Nidal group behind the Rome and Vienna airport attacks of December 27, 1985, the United States contemplated a military attack to send a message about support for international terrorism. In March 1986, the United States, asserting the 12-nautical-mile (22 km/14 mi) limit to territorial waters recognized by the international community, sent a carrier task force to the region. Libya responded with aggressive counter-maneuvers on March 24 that led to the destruction of Libyan radar systems and missile attack boats. Less than two weeks later on April 5, a bomb exploded in a West Berlin disco, La Belle, killing two American servicemen and a Turkish woman and wounding 200 others. The United States claimed to have obtained cable transcripts from Libyan agents in East Germany involved in the attack.

 
Libyan-United States clashes
Ground crew prepares a 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft for an air strike on Libya.
Ground crew prepares a 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft for an air strike on Libya.

After several days of diplomatic talks with European and Arab partners, President of the United States Ronald Reagan ordered the strike on Libya on April 14. Eighteen F-111F strike aircraft of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying from RAF Lakenheath supported by four EF-111A Ravens of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, from RAF Upper Heyford in England, in conjunction with twenty-seven A-6, A-7, and F/A-18 attack aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS America, USS Saratoga and USS Coral Sea on station in the Gulf of Sidra struck five targets at 02:00 on April 15, in the stated objective that their destruction would send a message and reduce Libya's ability to support and train terrorists.

The United States was denied overflight rights by France and Spain as well as the use of European continental bases, forcing the Air Force portion of the operation to be flown around France and through the Straits of Gibraltar, adding 1,300 miles (2,100 km) each way and requiring multiple aerial refuelings. The attack lasted about ten minutes. Several targets were hit and destroyed, but some civilian and diplomatic sites in Tripoli were struck as well, notably the French embassy, when a number of bombs missed their intended targets.

[edit] U.S. forces and targets

Target Planned planes
over target		 Planned bombing Actual planes
over target		 Actual bombing
Azizyah barracks 9 F-111Fs 36 GBU-10 2,000 lb LGB 3 F-111Fs bombed
1 F-111F missed
4 aborts
1 lost		 13 hits
3 misses
Murat Sidi Bilal camp 3 F-111Fs 12 GBU-10 2,000 lb LGB 3 F-111Fs bombed 12 hits
Tripoli airfield (fmr. Wheelus Air Base) 6 x F-111Fs 72 Mk 82 500 lb RDB 5 F-111F bombed
1 F-111F abort		 60 hits
Jamahiriyah (Benghazi) barracks 7 A-6Es 84 Mk 82 500 lb RDB 6 A-6Es bombed
1 A-6E abort on deck		 70 hits
2 misses
Benina airfield 8 A-6Es 72 Mk 20 500 lb CBU
24 Mk 82 500 lb RDB		 6 A-6Es bombed
2 aborts		 60 Mk 20 hits
12 Mk 82 hits
Tripoli air defense network 6 A-7E 8 Shrikes
16 HARMS		 6 A-7E fired 8 Shrikes
16 HARMS
Benghazi air defense network 6 F/A-18s 4 Shrikes
20 HARMS		 6 F/A-18s fired 4 Shrikes
20 HARMS
Totals 45 aircraft 300 bombs
48 missiles		 35 bombed
1 missed
1 lost
8 aborts		 227 hits
5 misses
48 homing missiles

[1]

[edit] Libyan air defenses

The Libyan air defense network was extensive including:

  • 4 Long range SA-5 Vega anti-aircraft missile units with 24 launchers.
  • 86 SA-2 Volchov and Neva anti-aircraft missile units with 276 launchers.

Covering Tripoli alone were:

  • 7 SA-2 Volchov anti-aircraft missile units with 6 missiles launchers per unit giving 42 launchers.
  • 12 SA-3 Neva anti-aircraft missile units with 4 missiles launchers per unit giving 48 launchers.
  • 3 SA-6 Kub anti-aircraft missile units with 48 launchers.
  • 1 SA-8 Osa-AK anti-aircraft regiment with 16 launch vehicles.
  • 2 Crotale II anti-aircraft units 60 launch pads

Cold War International History Project

[edit] Casualties

A 15-month-old girl said to have been Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's adopted daughter, Hanna, was killed and two of his sons were injured. Gaddafi himself was thought to have been the main target but, although a bomb exploded near his tent and other bombs destroyed his house in the capital, he was not harmed. In all, at least 15 civilians died in the attacks, together with an unknown number of Libyan military personnel.

Two USAF captains — Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and Paul F. Lorence — were killed when their F-111 was shot down over the Gulf of Sidra.

On December 25, 1988, Gaddafi offered to release the body of Lorence to his family through Pope John Paul II. This turned out to be Ribas-Dominicci's body, which was returned in 1989. Lorence's remains are believed to still be in Libyan hands.

In 2001 Theodore D. Karantsalis, a reference librarian at Miami-Dade College, enlisted the aid of Congressman Wally Herger's office to urge Libya to return Lorence's remains on behalf of his family and friends. Karantsalis also created a website and invited visitors to sign a petition to Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart seeking the return of Capt. Lorence's remains.

On January 27, 2005, Karantsalis filed a federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the Department of Defense and the Department of the Air Force seeking "to know where Captain Paul Lorence's remains are located."

Karantsalis had hoped to locate the remains before the 20th anniversary of Lorence's death.[2]

[edit] Retaliation

There was some retaliation. Libya responded by firing two Scud missiles at U.S. Coast Guard stations on the Italian island of Lampedusa which exploded far short of their targets. In Beirut, Lebanon, two British hostages held by the Abu Nidal Organization, Alec Collett and Leigh Douglas, along with an American named Philip Padfield were hanged in revenge. In addition, journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped and tourist Paul Appleby was murdered in Jerusalem.

Gaddafi quashed an internal revolt, the organization of which he blamed on the United States. Although Gaddafi appeared to have left the public sphere for a while in 1986/87, it later emerged that he had significantly increased Libyan arms shipments to terrorist groups in this period – especially to the Provisional IRA.

The Libyan government was alleged to have retaliated by ordering the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan on September 5, 1986. The allegation did not come to light until it was reported by The Sunday Times in March 2004--days after British prime minister, Tony Blair, paid the first official visit to Tripoli by a Western leader in a generation.[3]

Then came the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. Iran was initially thought to have been responsible for the Lockerbie bombing but two Libyans were charged in 1991, one of whom was convicted for the crime on January 31, 2001. The Libyan Government formally accepted responsibility for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing on May 29, 2002, and offered $2.7 billion to compensate the families of the 270 victims.[4]

[edit] Aftermath

The attack was widely condemned in strong terms. By a vote of 79 in favor to 28 against with 33 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 41/38 which "condemns the military attack perpetrated against the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on 15 April 1986, which constitutes a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law."[5]

The Government of Libya said that the United States had fallen prey to the arrogance and madness of power and wanted to become the world's policeman. It charged that any party that did not agree to become an American vassal was an outlaw, a terrorist, and a devil. A meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement said that it condemned the dastardly, blatant and unprovoked act of aggression. The League of Arab States expressed that it was outraged at the United States aggression and that it reinforced an element of anarchy in international relations. The Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union in its declaration said that the deliberate attempt to kill Libyans violated the principles of international law. The Government of Iran asserted that the attack constituted a policy of aggression, gunboat diplomacy, an act of war, and called for an extensive political and economic boycott of the United States. Others saw the United States motive as an attempt to eliminate Libya's revolution.[6]

The Government of China felt that the U.S. attack violated norms of international relations and had aggravated tension in the region. The Government of the USSR believed that there was a clear link between the attack and U.S. policy aimed at subjecting countries to its diktat, at stirring up existing hotbeds of tension and creating new ones, and at destabilizing the international situation.

Some observers held the opinion that Article 51 of the UN Charter set limitations on the use of force in exercising the legitimate right of self-defense in the absence of an act of aggression, and affirmed that there was no such act by Libya. It was charged that the United States did not bother to exhaust the Charter provisions for settling disputes under Article 33. Others asserted that Libya was innocent in the bombing of the West Berlin discotheque. [7]

The U.S. received support from the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, and a few others. Its doctrine of declaring a war on what it called "terrorist havens" was not repeated until 1998, when President Bill Clinton ordered strikes on six terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Margaret Thatcher's approval of the use of Royal Air Force bases led to substantial criticism, including an unprecedented story in The Sunday Times suggesting the Queen was upset by an "uncaring" Prime Minister. Gaddafi himself responded by saying "Thatcher is a murderer...Thatcher is a prostitute. She sold herself to Reagan".[8]

The overall European reaction to the United States’ bombing of Libya was extremely negative. Nearly every European government opposed the American attack. Public opinion in almost every state was overwhelmingly against the action. While the United Kingdom permitted the United States to use its bases to launch the attack, both France and Spain denied fly-over rights, giving rise to much anti-French sentiment in the United States. The West German government, although officially opposed to the attack, was somewhat ambivalent and understanding in post-attack statements by Helmut Kohl. Interestingly, only in France, which had history of conflict with Libya over Chad, was public opinion supportive of the U.S. action, with initially about 60% approving.

[edit] United Nations response

Every year, between at least 1994 and 2006, the United Nations General Assembly scheduled a declaration from the Organization of African Unity about the incident,[9] but systematically deferred the discussion year after year until formally putting it aside (along with several other issues which had been similarly rescheduled for years) in 2005.[10]

[edit] 1st anniversary

On the first anniversary of the bombing, April 1987, European and North American peace and solidarity activists gathered to commemorate the anniversary. After a few days of social and cultural networking with local Libyans, including a tour of Gaddafi's bombed house, the group gathered with other Libyans for a commemoration event.[11]

[edit] 20th anniversary

Early on April 15, 2006 – to mark the 20th anniversary of the bombing raid – a concert involving U.S. singer Lionel Richie and Spanish tenor José Carreras was held in front of Gaddafi's bombed house in Tripoli. Diplomats, businessmen and politicians were among the audience of what Libya dubbed the "concert for peace". The BBC reported Lionel Richie as telling the audience:

"Hanna [Gaddafi's adopted daughter] will be honored tonight because of the fact that you've attached peace to her name."[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pollack, Kenneth M. Arabs At War, Military Effectiveness 1948-1991 University of Nebraska Press, 2002
  2. ^ Captain Paul Lorence: An American Patriot Left Behind
  3. ^ Revealed: Gaddafi's air massacre plot.
  4. ^ Security Council lifts sanctions imposed on Libya after terrorist bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.
  5. ^ http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/41/a41r038.htm
  6. ^ UN Chronicle, August 1986
  7. ^ United Nations Yearbook, 1986, Volume 40, Department of Public Information, United Nations, New York
  8. ^ Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. Penguin Books, pp. 14–15. ISBN 0-141-01041-X. 
  9. ^ General Assembly Session 49 meeting 93 (20 December 1994).
  10. ^ General Assembly Session 59 meeting 117 (12 September 2005).
  11. ^ Vanderbilt.
  12. ^ Africa, BBC News.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links