Libya bombings of 1986

Libya bombings of 1986, U.S. air attacks on selected targets in Libya, launched on April 15, 1986, in retaliation for that country’s perceived terrorist activities. Ten days before the attacks, a bomb exploded in a discotheque in West Berlin frequented by U.S. soldiers, killing two people and injuring more than 200. On the basis of a series of Libyan messages intercepted by U.S. intelligence, U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan concluded that Libyan agents in East Berlin had been responsible for the explosion, and he approved retaliatory military action, which was given the code name Operation El Dorado Canyon.

Approximately 100 planes, some belonging to the U.S. Navy and some to the U.S. Air Force, took part in the air strikes. The naval planes were launched from aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, and the air force planes left several hours before the raid from bases in England. Because France and Spain both refused overflight privileges to the U.S. aircraft, the planes based in England were forced to fly southwest over the Atlantic Ocean and then east through the Strait of Gibraltar, a detour that added some 2,600 nautical miles to the round trip and required the planes to refuel in flight.

The bombings lasted about 12 minutes, during which more than 60 tons of munitions were dropped on areas in or near Libya’s capital, Tripoli, and its second largest city, Benghāzī. The specific targets included military barracks and bases, a training centre for underwater sabotage operations, and a military airfield; one of the targeted barracks contained a residential compound where the Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi lived with his family.

The bombings took the Libyan military completely by surprise. No effective measures had been taken to guard sensitive targets in Libya against a probable U.S. attack. No air-raid alarms sounded at the time of the strikes, and the air-defense systems of Tripoli and Benghāzī were activated only after the U.S. aircraft had completed their bombing runs. The raids caused heavy damage to all targets, though some planes were unable to drop their bombs for various reasons, and some bombs missed their targets, resulting in the destruction of apartment buildings and houses in Tripoli. The French embassy was also damaged in the attacks. Libyan civilian casualties included Qaddafi’s infant daughter, though Qaddafi himself survived. One U.S. aircraft was shot down and its pilots killed at sea.

Operation El Dorado Canyon drew heavy criticism from several countries, including the Arab countries, the Soviet Union, and France. It was considered the first U.S. military action whose official primary justification was the fight against international terrorism and its sponsors.