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JUDICIARY

Has France reopened the investigation into the 1983 Drakkar building attack?

On Oct. 23, 1983, two truck bombs driven by suicide bombers were detonated minutes apart outside two buildings in Beirut. One building housed the headquarters of the US Marines, and the other, the Drakkar building, housed French paratroopers who were members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon. The two bombs killed 299 people in total.

Has France reopened the investigation into the 1983 Drakkar building attack?

The Drakkar building, where 58 French soldiers lost their lives in a truck bomb explosion in 1983. (Credit: AFP/file photo)

Has the French justice system relaunched the investigation into a truck bomb attack 40 years ago in Beirut that killed more than 50 of the country's soldiers?

Several Lebanese and French sources interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity denied information published on March 8 by the American news agency the Associated Press (AP) and the Lebanese online newspaper al-Modon indicating that the investigation into the Drakkar building attack had been reopened.

These two media outlets, quoting anonymous "Lebanese judicial sources," reported that the French authorities have asked Lebanese prosecutors "to arrest two people suspected of being involved in the bombing," which on Oct. 23, 1983, killed 58 French paratroopers of the Multinational Force in Lebanon. A second truck bomb detonated within minutes on the same day, killing 241 US Marines.

The two suspects are reportedly Youssef el-Khalil and Sanaa el-Khalil, and according to sources interviewed by AP, the French judiciary called the Lebanese public prosecutor's office to order their arrest for questioning.

Adding to speculation that the French investigation has been relaunched, al-Modon mentioned official sources questioning the timing of its reported reopening.

"Is it directly related to the political conditions in Lebanon, or is it an attempt to pressure the internal parties, combined with complications in the Lebanese presidential file?" the newspaper asked, noting that "the US administration previously accused Hezbollah, particularly its former military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, of being behind the planning and implementation [of the attack that killed 241 US Marines]." 

Denials

Two sources close to the Lebanese Public Prosecutor's Office denied to L'Orient-Le Jour that they had received such a request from the Paris court.

Caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury, who "learned the news through the press," would have "ensured its veracity with the Public Prosecutor's Office," one of the two sources said, claiming the office "immediately denied having received such a request for judicial cooperation from its French counterpart." 

The caretaker justice minister did not respond to L'Orient-Le Jour's request for comment on the matter.

A source close to the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied that the Public Prosecutor's Office had received such a request. Such a request would usually go through the minister before landing on the desk of Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat.

Finally, a source in diplomatic circles also denied the information to L'Orient-Le Jour.

The Paris Prosecutor's Office did not respond to requests from our newspaper for comment, nor did the National Office for Combatants and Victims of War (ONacVG).

The suggestion that the investigation has been relaunched is all the more surprising since, for 40 years, the questions raised by the families of the victims and survivors have gone unanswered. In November 1989, French MPs had asked for "the establishment of a commission of inquiry on the attack," which never came to light.

On Oct. 23, 1983, two truck bombs driven by suicide bombers were detonated minutes apart outside two buildings in Beirut. One building housed the headquarters of the US Marines, and the other, the Drakkar building, housed French paratroopers who were members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon. The two bombs killed 299 people in total.

The double attack was claimed by the Islamic Jihad group linked to Iran.

The explosion outside the Drakkar building in Beirut caused immense emotion in France — 58 French soldiers were killed, the heaviest death toll suffered in a single day by the French army since the end of the Indochina war in 1954.

Daniel Tamagni, one of the surviving French soldiers who was on the fifth-floor balcony of the building at the time of the explosion, said he was surprised by the information circulating in Lebanon. "To my knowledge, we have no news on any revival of the investigation," he told L'Orient-Le Jour.


Has the French justice system relaunched the investigation into a truck bomb attack 40 years ago in Beirut that killed more than 50 of the country's soldiers?Several Lebanese and French sources interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity denied information published on March 8 by the American news agency the Associated Press (AP) and the Lebanese online newspaper al-Modon indicating...