September 20, 1984, East Beirut: 24 people were killed when a van carrying three thousand pounds of explosives detonated outside the U.S. Embassy annex in East Beirut. Embassy guards prevented the suicide bomber from crashing directly into the structure, which could have resulted in a death toll “five times greater.” Among those killed were two Americans: 33-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Kenneth V. Welch and 30-year-old Petty Officer First Class Michael Ray Wagner. Following the attack, an organization calling itself the Islamic Jihadist Organization claimed responsibility for the bombing. The CIA noted at the time that that “an overwhelming body of circumstantial evidence points to Hizballah, operating with Iranian support under the cover name of Islamic Jihad.” Satellite reconnaissance also discovered that a mock-up of the annex had been created at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard-run Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Baalbek to practice for the attack. (Source: UANI).
It is important to remember that, the actual Defense Minister of Hassan Rouhani’s government, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, is one of the Pasdaran men behind the 1983 attack against US Embassy in Beirut. Hossein Dehghan was sent to Lebanon and served as a commander of the training corps of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria and Lebanon. He joined the Revolutionary Guard after they were formed in 1979 and spent his entire military career there. On October 25, 1983, a Shi’ite suicide attacker detonated a truck bomb at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241; simultaneously, another suicide bomber blew up the French paratroopers’ barracks in Beirut, killing 58 soldiers. “The order to carry out the attacks was transmitted, and the funding and operational training provided, with the help of the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon under the command of Hossein Dehghan,” writes Mr. Shiom Shapira, Middle East expert (Source: Washington Times).
Good Morning Iran 