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Major attacks on US embassies
12/09/2006 14:48 - (SA)
Damascus - Four men shouting religious slogans tried to blow up the US embassy in Damascus on Tuesday but their car bomb failed to go off and Syrian security guards killed three of them in a shootout.
Here are details about major attacks on American embassies
and consulates in recent years:
Iran - November 1979 - Iranian militants seize the US embassy
in Tehran, taking 90 hostages. Fifty-two are held captive for
444 days. A US commando mission to rescue the hostages in
April 1980 is abandoned in the desert with the loss of eight
American lives when a helicopter collides with a tanker
aircraft. The hostages are released on January 20 1981, the day of
Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
Lebanon - April 1983 - The US embassy in Beirut is
destroyed in suicide car bomb attack; 63 people are killed,
among them 17 Americans, including the CIA's chief Middle East
analyst Robert C Ames.
Kuwait - December 1983 - A truck bomb attack on the US embassy and other targets kills six in Kuwait City.
Lebanon - September 1984 - A truck bomb explodes outside the
US embassy annexe in east Beirut, killing 24, including two US
military personnel.
Colombia - November 1984 - A bomb attack on the US embassy in Bogota kills a passer-by. The explosion follows death threats
against US officials from drug traffickers.
Peru - January 1990 - The embassy in Lima is bombed in an
attack blamed on the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
guerrilla group.
West Germany - February 1991 - Three Red Army Faction members fire automatic rifles from across the Rhine river at the US embassy chancery in Bonn. No one is hurt.
Russia - September 1995 - A rocket-propelled grenade is fired
through the window of the US embassy in Moscow, ostensibly in
retaliation for US strikes on Serb positions in Bosnia.
Greece - February 1996 - Unidentified assailants fired a rocket
at the US embassy compound in Athens, causing minor damage to
three diplomatic vehicles and some surrounding buildings.
Kenya/Tanzania - August 1998 - Truck bombs explode at the US
embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The
bombs kill 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wound
thousands. All but 10 of the deaths are in Nairobi, where damage
was the worst.
India - January 2002 - Armed militants on motorcycles fire on
the US consulate in Kolkata, killing five Indian security
personnel.
Pakistan - June 2002 - A bomb explodes outside American
consulate in Karachi, killing 12.
Uzbekistan - July 2004 - A Uzbekistan, a suicide bomber
detonates explosives at the US embassy in Tashkent, killing
two Uzbek security guards.
Saudi Arabia - December 2004 - Militants storm the US
consulate compound in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on December 6,
killing five non-American consular staff. Four of the five
attackers die in the attack and a fifth is wounded and arrested.
Pakistan - March 2006 - A car bomb outside the US
consulate in Karachi kills four people, including an American
foreign service officer.
Syria - September 12, 2006 - Four men try to blow up the US
embassy in Damascus but their car bomb fails to go off and
Syrian security guards kill three of them in a shootout.
- Reuters
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