1983 Kuwait Bombings

The 1983 Kuwait bombings were attacks on six key foreign and Kuwaiti installations on 12 December 1983, two months after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing. The 90-minute coordinated attack on two embassies, the country's main airport, and petro-chemical plant was more notable for the damage it was intended to cause than what was actually destroyed. What might have been "the worst terrorist episode of the twentieth century in the Middle East" killed only six people because of the bombs' faulty rigging.

The perpetrators of the bombing are unknown but were purported to be connected to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The motivation of the bombing is suspected to have been punishment against Kuwait, the United States and France for their military and financial assistance to Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War.

Bombings

On 12 December 1983, a truck laden with 45 large cylinders of gas connected to plastic explosives broke through the front gates of the American Embassy in Kuwait City and rammed into the embassy's three-story administrative annex, demolishing half the structure. The shock blew out windows and doors in distant homes and shops.

Only five people were killed (two Palestinians, two Kuwaitis, and one Syrian) in large part because the driver did not hit the more heavily populated chancellery building and more importantly, only a quarter of the explosives ignited. An American diplomat told journalist Robin Wright: "If everything had gone off, this place would have been a parking lot".

Five other explosions were attempted within an hour. An hour later, a car parked outside the French embassy blew up, leaving a massive 30 ft hole in the embassy security wall. No one was killed, and only five people were wounded.

The target intended to get the most powerful explosion was Kuwait's main oil refinery and water desalination plant, the Shuaiba Petrochemical Plant. 150 gas cylinders on a truck carrying 200 cylinders exploded 150 meters from the No. 2 refinery and only a few meters from a highly flammable heap of sulfa-based chemicals. Had that bombing been successful, it would have crippled the oil production of one of the world's major oil exporters and shut down most of the water supply of the nation.

Other car bombs exploded at the control tower at the Kuwait International Airport, the Electricity Control Center, and the living quarters for American employees of the Raytheon Corporation, which was installing a missile system in Kuwait. Two bombs at Raytheon went off, the first intended to bring the residents outside and the second intended to kill. The attempt failed as the residents did not emerge. An Egyptian technician was killed in the control tower bombing, but none of the other bombings resulted in fatalities.

The bombing of the American embassy was an early instance of suicide bombing in the Middle East, along with the Hezbollah's bombing of the American Embassy and the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon earlier that year in which Hezbollah is suspected to be the orchestrator.

Responsibility

Islamic Jihad Organization and Islamic Dawa Party were reported at the time to be involved in the bombing. Shortly after the blasts, Islamic Jihad called Kuwaiti authorities to take responsibility for the blast. The claim was taken seriously after the callers' boast that there was a "seventh bomb" was verified by the discovery of a car bomb in front of the Immigration Bureau.

Islamic Dawa was connected to the bombing when the remains of a human thumb were found and its thumbprint identified as that of Raad Murtin Ajeel, a 25-year-old Iraqi Shia member of Dawa. Ultimately, 21 other defendants were put on trial (17 captured in a nationwide manhunt and 4 tried in absentia). After a six-week trial, six were sentenced to death (three of those were in absentia), seven to life imprisonment, seven to terms between five and fifteen years. One of those convicted by a court in Kuwait in February 2007 was Jamal Jafaar Mohammed, more commonly known by his nom de guerre as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was a member of Kata'ib Hezbollah and Iraq's parliament and military commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Motivation

Some analysts claim the bombings were the work of Iran in cooperation with Shia allies from Iraq and Lebanon. Kuwait had given considerable support to Iraq in the 1980-1988 Iran–Iraq War. Between 1983 and 1984, Kuwait provided $7 billion in financial assistance and was second to Saudi Arabia in aiding Iraq, Massive destruction and loss of life in Kuwait would also have provided an example to the other oil-rich, population-poor, Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf, also helping Iraq against its larger, non-Arab, anti-monarchist revolutionary Islamic neighbor. In 1985, the Arab States of the Persian Gulf provided Iraq with financial contributions, totaling in the range of $40 to 50 billion.

Americans and the French are thought to have been targets in Kuwait because of their assistance to Iraq and lack of help to Iran. America had halted all shipments of arms to Iran, and extended $2 billion in trade credit to Iraq in " Operation Staunch" in 1983.

Response

The blasts were said to have taken the Kuwaiti government "completely by surprise" and left it dumbfounded, terrified and shaken to their core that such a well-organized terrorist operation could have taken place under their noses. According to the '' Monday Morning'' gazette, the hitherto relaxed nation was transformed into a "police state," with roundups of foreign workers, numerous roadblocks, identity checks, and guardsmen under orders to "shoot whoever refused to stop or be searched."

Pressure on Kuwait to free the bombers

Of the "Kuwait 17", 12 were Iraqis in al-Dawa,Bombs, Hostages: A Family Link
, ''The Washington Post'', 24 July 1990. and 3 were Lebanese. One was Mustafa Badr Al Din, who was sentenced to death. He was also a cousin and brother-in-law of one of Hezbollah's senior officers, Imad Mugniyah.
"Analysts say,... there is little doubt Mugniyeh and Al Din helped plan December 1983 bombings in Kuwait against the U.S. and French embassies there...."

Both the organization of Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran and the location of Dawa's headquarters helped free their fellow Shia revolutionaries in Kuwait.

In Lebanon, Western hostages, including American Frank Regier and Frenchman Christian Joubert, were held by Shia radicals demanding the release of the al-Dawa terrorists as the price of the hostages' release. On 27 March 1984, following the conviction of the al-Da'wa defendants, the hostage takers threatened to kill their hostages if the Kuwaiti government carried through with the planned execution of the al-Dawa prisoners. A month later, American Benjamin Weir was kidnapped by actors demanding the same. Anglican hostage negotiator Terry Waite appealed to the Emir of Kuwait and tried to obtain a visa to come to Kuwait. His failure to make progress in freeing the convicted terrorists is thought to be the reason that he himself was kidnapped and spent five years as a hostage.

Although those sentenced to death were to be hanged within 30 days, the Emir of Kuwait did not sign their death sentence.''Hezbollah: Born with a vengeance'' by Hala Jaber, p.127-129 The executions were delayed for years until the men escaped.

Iran

Chief Kuwaiti government spokesman Abdel Aziz Hussein called the bombings "the first concentrated Iranian operation to export the revolution and destabilize the Persian Gulf after Iran failed to infiltrate the Iraqi arfront." Kuwait was threatened with further attacks if the defendants were not released, with Tehran Radio regularly broadcasting warnings from Dawa that Kuwait would face "serious consequences" if the "heroes" standing trial were harmed.

Hezbollah

Over the next several years, Hezbollah perpetrated a string of kidnappings and bombings with the goal of forcing the Kuwaiti government to free the al-Dawa prisoners. Hostage Terry Anderson was told that he and the other hostages kidnapped in Beirut had been abducted "to gain the freedom of their seventeen comrades in Kuwait."

The Kuwait 17 then played a role in the Iran-Contra scandal: the principals of Iran-Contra offered to sway Kuwait to release the Kuwait 17 as one of several incentives to free American hostages in Lebanon. However, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan learned of this offer, he allegedly responded "like he had been kicked in the belly."

Aircraft hijackings (1984–1988)

Kuwait Airways Flight 221

On 3 December 1984, a Kuwait Airways flight from Kuwait City to Karachi, Pakistan was hijacked by four Lebanese Shi'a hijackers and diverted to Tehran. The hijackers demand was the release of the Kuwait 17, which was not met. During the course of the standoff women, children and Muslims were released and two American officials from the US Agency for International Development, Charles Hegna and William Stanford, were shot dead and dumped on the tarmac. The few dozen passengers left on board, particularly Americans were threatened and tortured. "Every five minutes there was a frightening incident. There was no letup at all," British flight engineer Neil Beeston told the BBC
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