Operation El Dorado Canyon
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The operation El Dorado Canyon was an air raid of the United States against targets in Libya in 1986 have been employed the armed forces United States Air Force , US Navy and the US Marine Corps . This attack resulted from the attack on the La Belle discotheque in Berlin on April 5, 1986.
background
After the fall of the Libyan monarchy in 1969 and Gaddafi's takeover, the relationship between the United States and Libya deteriorated. Gaddafi's allegiance to the Soviet Union and his support for communist regimes and terrorist groups aroused the displeasure of the US administration during the 1970s. The reason for a direct confrontation was Gaddafi's attempt to declare the Great Syrte to be Libyan territorial waters in violation of international law . From February to March 1986, during Operation Attain Document , the United States deployed most of the Sixth Fleet to publicly demonstrate that they did not see the Great Syrte as Libyan waters and that Gaddafi's request had failed. As part of the operation, there were several fighting between the US Navy and Libyan armed forces, which the US won. In response, Gaddafi launched a terror campaign against US targets. This culminated on April 5, 1986 in the attack on the La Belle discotheque in Berlin, which was visited by US soldiers . The US government then decided to air strikes against targets in Libya.
course
On the night of April 14-15, 1986, United States forces carried out an air strike on the Libyan coastal cities of Tripoli and Benghazi .
Attacks on Tripoli
France , Italy and Spain denied the USA the overflight rights and the use of the American military airfields in continental Europe for an operation against Libya, so that the aircraft launched in Great Britain had to reach their destination through international airspace over the Strait of Gibraltar , which required multiple in- flight refueling .
On April 14, 1986 at 5:36 p.m. (UTC), 19 F-111F Aardvark fighter aircraft of the 48th TFW (Tactical Fighter Wing) and five EF-111A aircraft took off from the bases RAF Lakenheath and RAF Upper Heyford in Great Britain Warfare (ECM) of the 42nd Electronic Combat Squadron targeting Tripoli in Libya. Six aircraft (five F-111Fs and one EF-111A) returned to their bases due to problems with the first refueling maneuver. 18 remaining fighter aircraft (14 F-111F and four EF-111A) began the US bombing of targets in and around Tripoli at midnight (UTC) or at 02:00 a.m. Libyan time.
The goals included the training facility for combat swimmers, the military airport and the barracks complex in Bab al-Aziziya . Revolutionary leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and two of his sons are said to have been injured. A bomb is said to have fallen near Gaddafi and injured his shoulder. According to Libyan information, 36 other Libyans fell victim to the bombings, and there was also damage to buildings at the embassies of Austria, Switzerland, Finland, France and Iran.
F-111F fighter aircraft dropped Mk 82 Snakeye bombs in the attack on the airport . Three Ilyushin Il-76 cargo planes were destroyed and three others damaged. A Libyan Boeing 727 passenger aircraft and a Fiat G.222 aircraft were also hit on the ground.
The Libyan defense fire with anti -aircraft missiles was unsuccessful, although Malta and Italy had informed Libyan authorities of the approach of the US aircraft. The Libyan Air Force did not launch any interceptors. An F-111F of the US Air Force (call sign: Karma 52) is said to have been shot down by a Libyan anti-aircraft missile, according to other information with an anti-aircraft gun. The pilot Major Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and the weapons systems officer Captain Paul F. Lorence perished. The pilot's body was found by Libyan security forces. The remains were transferred to the USA in 1989 through the mediation of the Vatican. Another F-111F fighter aircraft had to land at the Rota air base in Spain due to technical problems after the attacks on Libya . The crew were flown to the British base Lakenheath within two hours.
Attacks on Benghazi
The US Navy deployed a carrier-supported task force against Benghazi . Eight A-6E Intruders and six F / A-18A Hornets took off from the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CV-43) . Six A-6E Intruders, six A-7E Corsair II fighter-bombers and an EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare machine took off from the carrier USS America (CV-66) . US F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft protected the carriers and four E-2C Hawkeye aircraft monitored the airspace. Combat ships secured and monitored the military action, including the guided missile destroyer USS King (DDG-41) . A US aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, the USS Saratoga (CV-60) , was withdrawn from the crisis area in April 1986 and did not take part directly in the military action.
An SR-71 Blackbird aircraft from the British Air Force Base RAF Mildenhall is said to have been used for reconnaissance flights and recordings during the operation .
The targets of the attack were a training base for terrorists in Sidi Bilal (Sidi Balal), a Palestinian training camp, the Jamahiriya barracks complex in Benghazi and the Benina air base southeast of Benghazi, on which four MiG-23 Flogger fighter planes and two Fokker F.27 aircraft Friendship, two helicopters type Mi-8 (Mi-17) Hip and six small aircraft (two Twin Otters, two Cessna 402 and two Cessna 152) were destroyed. In addition, radar control systems and anti-aircraft batteries were destroyed.
TV speech by US President Reagan after the air strikes
“A few weeks ago, in New Orleans, I warned Colonel Gaddafi that we would hold his regime liable for any new terrorist attack against American citizens [...]. Despite our repeated warnings, Qaddafi continued his ruthless policy of intimidation and relentless terror. He was betting that America would remain passive. He miscalculated [...]. For years he [...] did not suffer any economic, political or military sanctions. And the number of atrocities increased, as did the number of innocent people killed and injured. And if we ignore the killing of American civilians and American soldiers by doing nothing, be it in nightclubs or in airport lobbies, it is simply not in line with American tradition. If our citizens are ill-treated or attacked under the direct orders of a hostile regime anywhere in the world, we will respond while I am in this Oval Office. Self-defense is not only our right, it is our duty […] this mission, violent as it was, will bring closer a safer world for decent men and women. We will stand firm. "( Ronald Reagan :)
Reactions
Libya
In response, on April 15, 1986, Libya shelled the Italian island of Lampedusa , on which a LORAN radio navigation station of the US Coast Guard was located, with two Scud-B ballistic missiles. Both missiles fell into the sea a kilometer from the target. There were no injuries.
On April 16, 1986, Muammar al-Gaddafi announced in a televised speech that he would continue his fight for the world revolution and rejected allegations of support for terrorism. Libya also accused Tunisia of granting the US overflight rights for the attack. This led to a deterioration in relations with neighboring Tunisia, with the result that Tunisian guest workers were expelled from the country from September 1986. Libya is also stopping debt payments to Tunisia: the debt to Tunisia amounted to 115 million US dollars.
On April 17, 1986, Libya announced attacks against British facilities in Lebanon in retaliation for British support for US air strikes. In late April 1986, three British citizens were kidnapped and murdered in Lebanon. One suspects the AIIB (Anti-Imperialist International Brigades) on behalf of Libya as the originator. On April 17, 1986, a communications officer at the US embassy in Khartoum was shot and wounded in Sudan . It was thought to be related to the US attacks on Libya. On the same day, three hostages were shot in Lebanon, the US citizen Peter Kilburn in Beirut and the British Leigh Douglas and Philip Padfield. Lt. Col. Oliver North of the National Security Council of the US President Ronald Reagan is said to have been in negotiations with the kidnappers before the bombing of Libya and to have negotiated the release for three million US dollars. After the US attacks, Libya and Muammar al-Gaddafi outbid the US offer, killing Kilburn.
On April 19, 1986, a bomb exploded in a US officers' club in Ankara . Four suspected Libyan terrorists were arrested by the Turkish police.
The UN Security Council's condemnation of the US attacks in New York failed because of the veto power of the USA, Great Britain and France. Libya then began closing numerous embassies in Western Europe.
Libya is also blamed for the Lockerbie attack on an American plane over Scotland in 1988.
Soviet Union
On April 16, 1986, the General Secretary of the CPSU, Mikhail Gorbachev , in a letter to Muammar al-Gaddafi , affirmed the Soviet Union's “active solidarity” with Libya in the face of the US air strikes, against which the Soviet Union is strongly protesting.
Federal Republic of Germany
On April 16, 1986, Chancellor Helmut Kohl issued a government statement on international terrorism and the US air strikes on Libya in the German Bundestag. In connection with the US attacks on Libya, Kohl pointed out that there were indications of Libyan responsibility for the attack on the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin on April 5, 1986. Whoever preaches violence must expect those affected to defend themselves, said Kohl.
Further statements by German politicians after the US attacks on Libya:
Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP): “There is no danger of war, but the situation in the Mediterranean is serious. It is all the more important that police cooperate decisively to combat terrorism. ”“ […] That especially at this stage new burdens on European-American relations must be avoided. ”
Heiner Geißler (CDU): "The time has come when the western democracies can no longer put up with everything."
Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski (SPD): “We need a European-Arab conference to fight terrorism. The excellent work of GSG 9 has never been requested so far [...] "
Franz Josef Strauss (CSU) qualified Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher's demand for political control of the crisis as 'dishonesty' and 'cowardice'. Genscher's policy is as if 'someone recommends Kukident (a dental care product) against broken legs.' ... Now 'someone should say what such a political solution should look like in view of the given facts and the person of Gaddafi' ... One must now understand that we are unfortunately in a 'state of war', in the form of a new one, not declared war, quoted in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on April 21, 1986.
On April 23, 1986, the Federal Republic of Germany became the first European country to demand that the embassy staff of the Libyan People's Office in Bonn be reduced from 41 to 22 diplomats.
Further
On April 16, 1986, the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared before the House of Commons in London that the US attacks on Libya should be seen as an act of self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter . In fact, the United Nations General Assembly that year condemned the attack by a majority.
On April 17, 1986, the twelve foreign ministers of the European Community (EC) pleaded at a crisis meeting in Paris for an end to US military actions and for restraint on the part of both conflicting parties. During a trip to Europe by US Ambassador Vernon A. Walters , the countries of the European Community decided to make a joint declaration against Libya before the attacks.
On April 21, 1986, a six-member delegation from the Non-Aligned Movement , headed by Indian Foreign Minister Bali Ram Bhagat, visited Libya. At a meeting with Muammar al-Gaddafi, Bhagat described the US attacks as completely unjustified and as "malicious aggression" which was an attack on every member country of the movement. At the time (1986-1989), the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe , who was elected chairman in a vote in Luanda, Angola, near Libya , held the chairmanship of the movement of the non-aligned states .
On April 25, 1986, Spain decided to expel 11 Libyans.
At the world economic summit in Tokyo from May 4 to 6, 1986, the participating states named Libya in a resolution against terrorism.
literature
- Nicholas Laham: The American bombing of Libya: A study of the force of miscalculation in Reagan foreign policy , McFarland, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-3185-4
Web links
- 1986: US launches air strikes on Libya. In: British Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved March 23, 2011 .
- Isabelle Imhof: Bombs on Ghadhafi. 25 years ago, Ronald Reagan wanted to eliminate Libya's rulers. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 14, 2011, accessed April 14, 2011 (Impact Analysis of " Operation El Dorado Canyon ").
- Tobias Mayer: Déjà vu experience in Libya. (mp3; flash) 25 years ago US warplanes bombed Tripoli and Benghazi. In: Deutschlandradio . April 15, 2011, accessed on April 15, 2011 (radio report on the 25th anniversary of " Operation El Dorado Canyon ").
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kenneth Pollack: Arabs at War, Lincoln, 2004; Pp. 412-417
- ^ Walter J. Boyne, "It would prove to be a grueling round-trip flight of 6,400 miles that spanned 13 hours, requiring eight to 12 in-flight refuelings for each aircraft. Inasmuch as a standard NATO F-111 sortie was about two hours, the El Dorado Canyon mission placed a tremendous strain on crews and complex avionic systems at the heart of the aircraft. " 1999
- ↑ Isabelle Imhof: Bombs on Ghadhafi. In: NZZ Online. Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG, April 14, 2011, accessed on November 7, 2011 : "Several governments - Italy and Malta are known - sent warnings to Tripoli."
- ↑ Kenneth Pollack: Arabs at War, Lincoln, 2004; Pp. 417-419
- ^ Translation in America Service
- ↑ Kordula Doerfler: In fear of Gaddafi's revenge. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . March 22, 2011, accessed March 23, 2011 .
- ↑ https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/41/a41r038.htm