Road To Lockerbie

Libyan People's Bureau (Embassy) in London, Knightsbridge, 2008
A 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft takes off to participate in an air strike on Libya.
Lockerbie Massacre
In May 1981, the U.S. government closed the Libyan "people's bureau" (embassy) in Washington, D.C. and expelled the Libyan staff in response their conduct generally violating internationally accepted standards of diplomatic behavior.
In August 1981, in the first incident of the Gulf of Sidra, two Libyan jets fired on U.S. aircraft participating in a routine naval exercise over international waters of the Mediterranean Sea claimed by Libya. The U.S. planes returned fire and shot down the attacking Libyan aircraft. On December 11, 1981, the State Department invalidated U.S. passports for travel to Libya (a de facto travel ban) and, for purposes of safety, advised all U.S. citizens in Libya to leave. In March 1982, the U.S. government prohibited imports of Libyan crude oil into the United States  and expanded the controls on U.S.-origin goods intended for export to Libya. Licenses were required for all transactions, except food and medicine. In March 1984, U.S. export controls were expanded to prohibit future exports to the Ras al-Enf petrochemical complex. In April 1985, all Export-Import Bank financing was prohibited.

Also in 1984, the United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Libya after the killing of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London. Ties were re-established in 1999.

Then there was  a terrorist attack on the La Belle discothèque in West Berlin, Germany, an entertainment venue that was commonly frequented by United States soldiers. A bomb placed under a table near the disk jockey's booth exploded at 1:45 am CET on April 5, 1986, killing three people and injuring around 230 people, including 79 American servicemen.
Nermin Hannay, a Turkish woman, and U.S. sergeant Kenneth T. Ford were killed instantly; a second American sergeant, James E. Goins, died from his injuries two months later. Some of the victims were left permanently disabled.

Libya was blamed for the bombing after telex messages had been intercepted from Libya to the Libyan East Berlin embassy congratulating them on a job well done.

Two weeks before the La Belle discotheque blast, Gaddafi called for Arab assaults on American interests worldwide after a U.S.-Libyan naval clash in the Mediterranean, in which 35 seamen on a Libyan patrol boat in the Gulf of Sidra were killed in international waters claimed by Libya.



U.S. President Ronald Reagan retaliated by ordering airstrikes against the Libyan capital of Tripoli and city of Benghazi. On April 14,1986 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 fifteen A-6, A-7, F/A-18 attack aircraft and EA-6B Prowler Electronic Warfare Aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga, USS America and USS Coral Sea on station in the Gulf of Sidra, struck five targets at 02:00 on April 15, with the stated objective that their destruction would send a message and reduce Libya's ability to support and train terrorists. Reagan warned that "if necessary, [they] shall do it again. The attack began at 0200 hours (Libyan time), and lasted about twelve minutes, with 60 tons of munitions dropped. Eighteen F-111 bombers supported by four EF-111 electronic countermeasures aircraft flying from the United Kingdom bombed Tripoli airfield, a frogman training center at a naval academy, and the Bab al-Azizia barracks in Tripoli. During the bombing of the Bab al-Aziziya barracks, an American F-111 was shot down by a Libyan SAM missile over the Gulf of Sidra. Some bombs landed off-target, striking diplomatic and civilian sites in Tripoli, while the French embassy was only narrowly missed. Some Libyan soldiers abandoned their positions in fright and confusion, and officers were slow to give orders. Libyan anti-aircraft fire did not begin until after the planes had passed over their targets. Twenty-four A-6 Intruders and F/A-18 Hornets launched from aircraft carriers bombed radar and antiaircraft sites in Benghazi before bombing the Benina and Jamahiriya barracks. A number of bombs missed their targets and hit residential areas, along with a number of Western embassies in Benghazi.


The attacks failed to kill Gaddafi. Forewarned by a telephone call, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound moments before the bombs dropped. It was long thought that the call came from Malta's Prime Minister, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. However, Italian politician Bettino Craxi was the person who actually warned Gaddafi, according to Giulio Andreotti (the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy) and Abdel Rahman Shalgham (Libya's Foreign Minister from 2000 until 2009).
According to medical staff in the nearby hospital, two dozen people arrived in military uniform and two without uniform. Total Libyan casualties are estimated at 60, including casualties at the bombed airbases. Among the casualties was an infant girl, whose body was shown to American reporters and who was claimed to be Gaddafi's recently adopted daughter. However, there was skepticism that she even existed.Twenty-five years later, during the 2011 Battle of Tripoli, after Gadaffi's residence was seized by the rebel forces, it was proven that there was such a daughter, but that she survived and was now a medical doctor.


Two U.S. Air Force captains — Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and Paul F. Lorence — were killed when their F-111 fighter-bomber was shot down over the Gulf of Sidra. According to newspaper reports at the time, the U.S. fighter-bomber lost in the incursion had crashed due to "pilot disorientation" or "systems failure"


Gaddafi announced that he had "won a spectacular military victory over the United States" and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah".  However, his speech appeared devoid of passion and even the "victory" celebrations appeared unusual. Criticism of Gaddafi by ordinary Libyan citizens became more bold, such as public defacing of Gaddafi posters.
The raids against the regime had brought it to its the weakest point in 17 year.

Libya responded by firing two Scud missiles at a United States Coast Guard station on the Italian island of Lampedusa which passed over the island and landed in the sea.

There was only limited change in Libyan-connected terrorism.
The Libyan government was alleged to have ordered the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 in Pakistan on September 5, 1986, which resulted in the deaths of 20 people. 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.
In May 1987, Australia deported diplomats and broke off relations with Libya, claiming Libya sought to fuel violence in Australia and Oceania.
In late 1987 French authorities stopped a merchant vessel, the MV Eksund, which was delivering 150 tons of Soviet arms from Libya to European terrorist groups.
In Beirut, Lebanon, two British hostages held by the Libyan-supported Abu Nidal Organization, Leigh Douglas and Philip Padfield, along with an American named Peter Kilburn, were shot dead in revenge. In addition, journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped, and tourist Paul Appleby was murdered in Jerusalem, Israel. Another British hostage named Alec Collett was also killed in retaliation for the bombing of Libya. Collett was shown being hanged in a video tape. His body was found in November 2009.
On December 21, 1988, came the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded in mid-air and crashed on the town of Lockerbie in Scotland after a bomb set by Libyan agents detonated, killing all 259 people aboard, and 11 people in Lockerbie. Iran was initially thought to have been responsible for the bombing in revenge for the downing of the Iranian Airbus by the USS Vincennes, but in 1991 two Libyans were charged, one of whom was convicted of the crime in a controversial judgement 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. However, the convicted Libyan, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was allegedly suffering from terminal prostate cancer, was released in August 2009 by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds. The extent and severity of al-Meghrahi's cancer have since come into serious doubt.

In October 2008 Libya paid US$1.5 billion, over three installments of US$300 million on October 9, 2008, US$600 million on October 30, 2008, and a final US$600 million October 31, 2008, into a fund  which will be used to compensate relatives of the

• Lockerbie bombing victims an additional US$2 million each, after having paid them US$8 million earlier;
• American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;
• American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing;and,
• Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.

To pay the settlement, Libya demanded US$1.5 billion from global oil companies operating in Libya's oil fields, under threat of "serious consequences" to their leases. Libya's settlement was at least partially funded by some companies, including some based in the U.S., that chose to cooperate with Libya's demand.
Courtesy:1.Wikipedia2.www.martinfrost.wsBloglink: rajatdmc.blogspot.com