U.S. Embassy defences incomplete

Press, 22 September 1984, Page 1

U.S. Embassy defences incomplete

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Anti-terrorist defences’ round the new United States Embassy annex in Christian east Beirut were still incomplete when a suicide car-bomber crashed past them to devastate the building on Thursday, according to embassy sources. They said that steel gates to control the entry of vehicles were due to be installed soon to complete barricaded checkpoints at each end of the narrow approach road that passes in front of the building. But the work had not been completed even though the new building had been functioning for more than a month, and most United States diplomats in Beirut had moved into it for secur- ■ ity reasons after leaving the main embassy compound in Muslim-controlled west Beirut. The only obstacle the suicide driver faced, as he turned off a semi-rural road to approach the building, was an incomplete barricade of three “dragons’ tooth” concrete blocks manned by Lebanese security guards armed with M-16 rifles. The concrete blocks, set waist-high at the entrance to the approach road, simply forced the driver to slow down and make two half-turns in a brief zig-zag as he entered it

After that, he roared along the last 200 m stretch of narrow, straight roadway to the front of the building where he detonated the explosives. The embassy sources said the guards manning the barricades at each end of the approach road were former Lebanese militiamen hand picked by the United States Embassy and specially trained in the last few weeks by American antiterrorist experts. A squad of 60 former militiamen, who took over after United States Marines recently left Lebanon, were in charge of external security at both the new annex in east Beirut and the main embassy compound in west Beirut.

The guards at the annex in east Beirut were former members of Christian militias and those in West Beirut former Muslim militiamen. All wore beige uniforms and blue berets and were armed only with standard United ' States Army M-16 rifles. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said yesterday that the attack on the United States Embassy in Beirut was an unprovoked act of terrorism committed by people moved by hatred and impelled by fanaticism.

Further reports, page 10