page_title: Hezbollah
section_title: Alleged suicide and terror attacks
hierarchical_section_title: Hezbollah / The beginning of its military activities: the South Lebanon conflict / Alleged suicide and terror attacks
caption_attribution_description: English: Caption: The explosion of the Marine Corps building in Beirut, Lebanon on October 23, 1983 created a large cloud of smoke that was visible from miles away. Photo by: Official USMC Photo PhotoID: 2001101810128 Submitted by: Headquarters Marine Corps Operation/Exercise/Event: Beirut This photo taken from http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2001101810128, which, since it is a US Marine Corps page, is public domain.
context_page_description: Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese parliament. Since the death of Abbas al-Musawi in 1992, the group has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General. The organization or its military wing are considered terrorist organizations in 21 countries, as well as by the Arab League and the European Union.
  The idea of Hezbollah arose among Lebanese clerics who had studied in Najaf, and who adopted the model set out by Ayatollah Khomeini after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The organization was established as part of an Iranian effort, through funding and the dispatch of a core group of pasdaran instructors, to aggregate a variety of Lebanese Shia groups into a unified organization to resist the Israeli occupation and improve the standing and status of the long marginalised and underrepresented Shi'ite community in that country.
context_section_description: Between 1982 and 1986, there were 36 suicide attacks in Lebanon directed against American, French and Israeli forces by 41 individuals, killing 659. Hezbollah denies involvement in some of these attacks, though it has been accused of being involved or linked to some or all of these attacks:
  The 1982–1983 Tyre headquarters bombings
  The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization),
  The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing (by the Islamic Jihad Organization), that killed 241 U.S. marines, 58 French paratroopers and 6 civilians at the US and French barracks in Beirut
  The 1983 Kuwait bombings in collaboration with the Iraqi Dawa Party.
  The 1984 United States embassy annex bombing, killing 24.
  A spate of attacks on IDF troops and SLA militiamen in southern Lebanon.
  Hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985,
  The Lebanon hostage crisis from 1982 to 1992.
  Since 1990, terror acts and attempts of which Hezbollah has been blamed include the following bombings and attacks against civilians and diplomats:
  The 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires, killing 29, in Argentina. Hezbollah operatives boasted of involvement.
  The 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish cultural centre, killing 85, in Argentina. Ansar Allah, a Palestinian group closely associated with Hezbollah, claimed responsibility.
  The 1994 AC Flight 901 attack, killing 21, in Panama. Ansar Allah, a Palestinian group closely associated with Hezbollah, claimed responsibility.
  The 1994 London Israeli Embassy attack, injuring 29, in the United Kingdom.
  The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, killing 19 US servicemen.
  In 2002, Singapore accused Hezbollah of recruiting Singaporeans in a failed 1990s plot to attack U.S. and Israeli ships in the Singapore Straits.
  15 January 2008, bombing of a U.S. Embassy vehicle in Beirut.
  In 2009, a Hezbollah plot in Egypt was uncovered, where Egyptian authorities arrested 49 men for planning attacks against Israeli and Egyptian targets in the Sinai Peninsula.
  The 2012 Burgas bus bombing, killing 6, in Bulgaria. Hezbollah denied responsibility.
  Training Shia insurgents against US troops during the Iraq War.
caption: A smoke cloud rises from the bombed American barracks at Beirut International Airport, where over 200 U.S. marines were killed
exif: {}