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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," succeeding in killing only six people because of the bombs' faulty rigging. Overshadowing the destruction or attempted destruction of bombings, as well as the subsequent arrests, trial and convictions of the perpetrators, was a series of kidnappings, hijackings and killings staged over the next several years to pressure Kuwait to release those convicted of the bombings. 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 suspect to have been punishment against Kuwait, America and France for their military and financial assistance to Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War.〔Ranstorp, ''Hizb'allah in Lebanon'' (1997), p. 117〕 ==The 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 a Syrian)〔Associated Press article, 30 January 1984〕 in large part because the driver did not hit the more heavily populated chancellery building, and more importantly because only a quarter of the explosives ignited. "If everything had gone off, this place would have been a parking lot, one "prominent American diplomat" told journalist Robin Wright.〔 〕 Five other explosives were attempted within an hour. An hour later, a car parked outside the French Embassy blew up, leaving a massive 30 foot hole in the embassy security wall. None were killed and only five people were wounded. The target intended to get the most powerful explosion was Kuwait's main oil refinery and water desalinization plant, the Shuaiba Petro-chemical plant. A truck with 200 gas cylinders exploded 150 metres 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 its 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. This attempt failed as the residents did not emerge. An Egyptian technician was killed in the control tower bombing,〔(Incident profile )〕 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 bombings of the American Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon earlier that year.〔(Chronology of terrorism ) against Americans, 1979-1988〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1983 Kuwait bombings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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