1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires

Attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires
Part of Islamic terrorism


The attack site
Location Buenos Aires, Argentina
Coordinates 34°36′31.20″S 58°22′35″W / 34.6086667°S 58.37639°W
Date March 17, 1992
14:42 pm (UTC-3)
2:42 pm (GMT-3)
Target Israeli embassy
Attack type
 suicide bombing
Deaths 29 people (+ 1 suicide bomber)
4 Israeli civilians
25 Argentine civilians
Non-fatal injuries
 242 civilians
Perpetrators Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility[1]
Hezbollah operative Imad Mugniyah charged by Argentina

The attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was a suicide bombing attack on the building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina, located in Buenos Aires, which was carried out on 17 March 1992. Twenty-nine civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured.

The attack

On 17 March 1992, at 2:42 pm (UTC−3), a pickup truck driven by a suicide bomber and loaded with explosives smashed into the front of the Israeli Embassy located on the corner of Arroyo and Suipacha, and detonated. The embassy, a Catholic church, and a nearby school building were destroyed. Four Israelis died, but most of the victims were Argentine civilians, many of them children.[2] The blast killed 29 and wounded 242.[1] It was Argentina's deadliest terror attack until the AMIA Bombing of 1994, and it remains the deadliest attack on an Israeli diplomatic mission.

Fatalities

Priest Juan Carlos Brumana was one of the people killed in the suicide bombing. He died in the Catholic Church Mater Admirabilis that is in front of the embassy.[3] Among the dead there were two Israeli women who were the wives of the embassy's consul and first secretary.[4]

Responsibility

A group called Islamic Jihad Organization, which has been linked to Iran and possibly Hezbollah,[5] claimed responsibility;[1] their stated motive for the attack was Israel's assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Abbas al-Musawi in February 1992.[4] Islamic Jihad also released surveillance footage they took of the embassy before the blast.[1]

After the bombing, Israel sent investigators to Argentina to search for clues. They learned that the bombers planned the attack in the Tri-Border area, where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil meet and which has a large Muslim population.[6] Messages intercepted by the American National Security Agency revealed Iranian knowledge of the impending attack, as well as the complicity of Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyah.[6] In fact, Mugniyeh was formally charged by Argentina with participating in the bombings of the Israeli embassy.[7]

In May 1998, Moshen Rabbani, (the Cultural Attaché in the Iranian Embassy in Argentina until December 1997) was detained in Germany, and the Argentine government expelled seven Iranian diplomats from the country, stating that it had "convincing proof" of Iranian involvement in the bombing. However, none of the suspects was prosecuted. In fact the attack occurred when Iran and Argentina were hoping for a resumption of nuclear cooperation, although Argentina had announced the suspension of the shipments of nuclear materials to Iran a couple months before the bombing.[8] A number of sources[9][10] report on Hezbollah involvement with the assistance of Syria. Hezbollah denies these claims.[11]

In 1999, the Argentine government issued an arrest warrant for Imad Mugniyah in connection with this attack and the 1994 AMIA Bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 85. It is suspected that the two attacks are linked.[7]

Aftermath

Kirchner on the case

When he was president, Néstor Kirchner pronounced that allowing these two incidents to happen, with no real inquiries to be followed, equaled a "national disgrace."[12] He reopened, and kept open files from these incidents, most to be read by Justice Juan Jose Galeano. In the same process Kirchner hoped to lift the ban for former Intelligence Officers (Argentine) to testify. The current President of Argentina (his widow, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner) has also claimed to want to get to the bottom of the case.

Commemoration

Today there is a memorial set up in place of where the building stood. In the memorial plaza stand twenty one trees and seven benches in memory of the victims. A plaque describing the event and listing the victims is located in the memorial in both Hebrew and Spanish.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1992 Patterns of Global Terrorism: The Year in Review
  2. ↑ Bergman, 171.
  3. ↑ Calderon, Horacio. "Winds of War in the Levant and Middle East The Hariri and AMIA cases" (Working Papers 14). CAEI. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Long, William R. (19 March 1992). "Islamic Jihad Says It Bombed Embassy; Toll 21". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  5. ↑ Interview Robert Baer
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bergman, 172.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Norton, Augustus Richard, Hezbollah: A Short History, Princeton University Press, 2007, p.79
  8. ↑ Argentina's Iranian nuke connection, Gareth Porter, 15 November 2006
  9. ↑ Ranstorp, Magnus (1997). Hizb'allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis. New York: St. Martins Press. p. 107. ISBN 0-312-16288-X.
  10. ↑ United States Department of State, April 2005
  11. ↑ Hezbollah again denies involvement in deadly Buenos Aires bombing BEIRUT, March 19 (AFP)
  12. ↑ "Terror, død og diplomati". Dagbladet. 18 July 1994. Retrieved 4 March 2013.

Sources

External links

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