The U.S. Embassy was attacked by a suicide car bomber, killing at least 23 people and injuring scores in a Beirut suburb. The assailant, who died in the explosion, detonated the vehicle in front of the six-story building, devastating it. Two Americans were known to be among the dead. The embassy had recently been moved to Aukar in Christian East Beirut because it was thought to be safer than West Beirut. The driver, who died in the huge explosion, negotiated the concrete- block defenses around the embassy and detonated the vehicle in front of the six-story building. The force of the explosion, which occurred at 11:44 AM (4:44 AM, New York time), ripped off the front of the embassy, shredding glass, bending steel bars and destroying cars in a nearby parking lot.
Pandemonium ensued. Marines, clutching their M-16’s, pulled on flak jackets. Diplomats, some with their clothes smeared with blood, staggered out of the wreckage holding walkie-talkies and looking for their colleagues. Two Americans were known to be among the dead. Most of those killed or wounded were believed to be Lebanese, either local employees or people seeking visas. The United States Ambassador, Reginald Bartholomew, was reported slightly hurt after he was trapped in his office. The British Ambassador, David Miers, who was meeting with Mr. Bartholomew at the time of the explosion, was also reported slightly hurt.
The embassy, officially known as the embassy annex but in fact the main American diplomatic installation, had only recently been moved to this suburb of the predominantly Christian East Beirut. It had been thought that the area was safer than West Beirut. The car bombing today was the second such attack on an American embassy in Lebanon in 17 months. On April 18, 1983, the embassy in West Beirut was destroyed in a bombing that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans. A shadowy group known as Islamic Holy War claimed responsibility in a telephone call to Agence France- Presse about an hour and a half after the explosion today. The same group took responsibility for the previous embassy bombing and the suicide bomb attacks on the American and French garrisons in Beirut last October 23 that killed 241 Americans and 58 Frenchmen.
“The operation goes to prove that we will carry out our previous promise not to allow a single American to remain on Lebanese soil,” the anonymous caller said in Arabic in the telephone call today. The police said the car may have been carrying 385 pounds of explosives. The state television reported that the force of the blast had been increased because the car was fitted with four Soviet-made Grad rockets. The car began picking up speed as it wove through the barricades, witnesses said, and the guards began firing, first in the air, then at the car, as it speeded up. “I fired four or five shots from my M-16 before it jammed,” a Lebanese guard on duty at the checkpoint, who gave his name only as Saleh, told reporters. “I took out the magazine to replace it and the truck ran by me, scraping the edge of two of the barriers.” The British bodyguards assigned to Ambassador Miers, who were waiting in their Land-Rover in the parking lot, also jumped out and opened fire at the careering vehicle with their Heckler- Koch machine pistols, a diplomat said, and believed they hit the driver.
Security measures were incomplete when the United States occupied its new embassy in Beirut, according to a senior State Department official. The area around the embassy was guarded by Lebanese Christian militiamen because a contingent of 80 United States marines was withdrawn seven weeks ago when State Department officials decided it was no longer needed.
No retaliation is planned now by the Reagan Administration for the car bombing. Though condemning the attack as “senseless” and “brutal,” President Reagan said the United States would not be driven out of Lebanon by such attacks.
Little is known about the terrorists who took responsibility for the car bombing in Beirut, according to Reagan Administration officials. The group, known as Islamic Holy War, warned earlier this month that a “vital United States interest” in the Middle East would soon be attacked. Intelligence officials said they had been unable to identify any people involved with the group.
Shiite Muslims were attacked by militiamen of the South Lebanese Army, who killed 13 residents of a village near Syria, Israeli officials reported. Twenty-two civilians were reported wounded in the attack, which was said to be in revenge for an ambush in which four Lebanese militiamen were slain.
A Polish Government spokesman today ruled out any improvement in relations with the United States until there was a change in the “illogical, absurd and unjust” policies toward Poland. The spokesman, Jerzy Urban, spoke in an interview after publication of a critique of United States policies in Trybuna Ludu, the party daily. Trybuna Ludu indicated that Poland would be willing to upgrade relations by exchanging ambassadors, but Mr. Urban said United States policies would have to change first.
The annual Liberal Party assembly in London called today for the removal of American cruise missiles from Britain depite the protests of David Steel, the Liberal leader. The action dealt a severe blow to the solidity of the Liberal alliance with the Social Democrats. The assembly also advocated the adoption of a formal “no first strike” nuclear pledge by all countries of the Western alliance. Mr. Steel had implored the delegates to reject the motion urging the removal of the American-manned weapons “forthwith.” He made his speech from the floor, breaking with long-standing British political tradition by descending from the platform of the convention hall in Bournemouth, a resort town on the English Channel. But despite their leader’s forceful words, in which Mr. Steel invested much of his considerable political capital, the assembly backed the motion by a vote of 611 to 556.
Mr. Steel had warned that Liberal support for the abandonment of both cruise and British nuclear weapons, as advocated by the Labor Party, would cost the alliance as dearly as it cost Labor at the 1983 general election. “The electorate has demonstrated time and again,” said the Liberal leader, stabbing the air with his right forefinger, “that it will not vote for any party that dodges its basic responsibilities for defense. Be very careful. Think about what you are doing.”
The Soviet Union said today that it would allow international inspection of its civilian nuclear reactors, and that the gesture was aimed at strengthening trust between nations. The Soviet press and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said a voluntary accord had been drafted to place Soviet civilian nuclear reactors under agency safeguards. It would not be the first time foreign inspectors have been allowed to visit Soviet reactors, some of which have been used to train inspectors. But it would be the first time that inspectors would fit special devices to the Soviet power stations to measure the movement of nuclear fuel.
French troops have ceased all military operations in Chad and have begun preparing for a withdrawal scheduled to start next week under an agreement with Libya, French military sources said today. France and Libya jointly announced on Monday the gradual withdrawal of more than 3,000 French soldiers, who support the Government in N’Djamena, and of 3,500 Libyan troopers, who support Chadian rebels in the north. The phased withdrawal is to start with a pullback of 1,600 troopers in the northwest and northeast of the nation to headquarters in interior towns, the military sources said. Eventually, they will be moved to N’Djamena, and the withdrawal is to be completed in mid- November, said the sources.
Iraq asserted today that its forces had attacked Iranian oil installations at Kharg Island. Iran denied the report. An Iraqi spokesman said in a radio broadcast monitored here that Iraq attacked Kharg Island today in response to Iranian attacks Sunday on the Iraqi oil ports of Al Bakr and Al Amiq. A senior official of the National Iranian Oil Company, reached by telephone in Tehran, denied that Iraq had attacked the oil terminal and said operations there were normal. Arab diplomats in the Persian Gulf region said Iraqi jet fighters had carried out an attack. But shipping sources in Bahrain and elsewhere said they had heard nothing that would indicate that Kharg Island, the main Iranian oil port, had been raided. The conflicting reports could not be independently verified.
N. T. Rama Rao easily won a vote of confidence in the Andhra Pradesh state assembly today, thereby ratifying his reinstatement this week as Chief Minister of the southern Indian state. The vote came despite disruptions on the floor of the assembly by Mr. Rama Rao’s opponents. The reinstatement resolved a major political crisis that began a month earlier when Mr. Rama Rao, an opponent of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was dismissed by an appointed Governor loyal to Mrs. Gandhi. Since Mr. Rama Rao still appeared to command the support of a majority of the assembly, his dismissal created a nationwide storm of protest against what was called the “murder of democracy” and damaged Mrs. Gandhi’s political standing. Today Mr. Rama Rao proved that he indeed had a majority in the assembly when 161 of its 293 eligible voting members declared their support for him on a long-awaited, often-delayed confidence motion.
Nearly 100 passengers were feared drowned near the border between Nepal and India after an overcrowded wooden boat capsized during the weekend in the Rapti River in Nepal, the Indian news agency Press Trust of India reported today. The river had been swollen by monsoons. There was no immediate comment by Nepalese authorities.
Separatist guerrillas in Sri Lanka shot and killed five people Wednesday night in the troubled northern district of Jaffna and tied their bodies to lampposts, security sources said today. They said four of the victims were members of the Tamil minority and the other was Sinhalese. More than 50 Tamils have been killed in northern and eastern Sri Lanka in recent months by guerrillas fighting for a separate Tamil state, they said. The main Tamil party, the Tamil United Liberation Front, asked President J. R. Jayewardene today to withdraw the armed forces from the north. It accused the security forces of killing innocent people in reprisal for guerrilla ambushes.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos said today that while the Philippine military says that a lone gunman hired by Communists killed the opposition leader, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., “I did not say that was my opinion.” In addition, Mr. Marcos said that findings of the panel would be immediately referred to the proper prosecuting authority, regardless of who might be implicated. Should the military be found responsible for Mr. Aquino’s death, he said, those named would be immediately suspended from duty and then court-martialed. Mr. Marcos’s comment was widely seen here as an effort to put some distance between himself and the military’s position, which has been challenged by witnesses who testified before a panel of inquiry into the August 1983 slaying. Mr, Aquino was shot to death at the Manila airport as he stepped from an airliner after more than three years in the United States. There has been growing speculation and some press reports here that the panel investigating the assassination will find that Mr. Aquino was killed as a result of a conpiracy within the military. The report of the five-member board is expected within the next week or so.
Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke wept in public today as he denied an opponent’s charge that he was covering up organized crime. Mr. Hawke, a former trade union leader, threatened to file a lawsuit if the opposition leader, Andrew S. Peacock, repeated his allegations outside Parliment. Last week Mr. Peacock called the Prime Minister “a little crook” and “perverter of the law.” A tearful Mr. Hawke said at a news conference today: “I hope that Mr. Peacock will recognize the enormity of the allegation that he’s made against me, that I am a crook, that I associate with criminals, that I am directed by them.” Mr. Hawke, riding a wave of popularity after 18 months in office, has promised to announce within two weeks a date for an early election. It is expected to take place before the end of the year.
Nicaraguan Government leaders have made substantial concessions in private to their political opponents, according to diplomats and opposition activists. The concessions were said to have been made in recent days through the intercession of the President of Colombia, Belisario Betancur. The activists said they considered the Sandinistas’ response to their proposals more substantial than any they have received since their coalition lost its legal status last month. They said the only major proposal which the Sandinistas had not addressed was postponement of the national election scheduled for November 4.
A Government panel of inquiry gave President Raul Alfonsin a major report tonight on the military’s campaign against subversives in the 1970’s, calling it the most savage event in Argentine history. At least 9,000 people disappeared in the campaign, known as the “dirty war.” It began under the Government of Isabel Martinez de Peron in 1974 and continued through three military juntas. “The armed forces responded with a terrorism infinitely worse than that of the combatant,” the report said. Its strongly worded prologue, written by the Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato, who headed the presidential commission, makes it clear that military officials were responsible for the disappearences. The armed forces, it says, participated in “kidnapping, torturing and assassinating thousands of human beings.” The report concluded that the list of 8,961 missing people gathered by the commission “could not be considered definitive” and that there were many cases of disappearances that had not not reported to the commission.
Edwin Meese 3rd was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by a court-appointed independent counsel. The counsel, Jacob A. Stein, said there was “no basis” for any Federal prosecution of Mr. Meese, President Reagan’s nominee for Attorney General. Mr. Stein said his mandate did not permit him to evaluate the ethics of Mr. Meese’s conduct or his fitness to be Attorney General.
A military budget compromise that would delay any vote on the MX missile until next year was reached by House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker Jr. and the White House. The agreement set the 1985 military budget at $292.9 billion, about a five percent increase after inflation. The compromise appeared to be a major victory for House Democrats and MX opponents.
President Reagan participates in a Q & A session with local farmers near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
President Reagan and former President Gerald R. Ford tour the Ford Museum at the Gerald R. Ford Bicentennial Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
On the Brattleboro Common in Vermont today, a square of green in the middle of town where people usually come to play chess and listen to music, Vice President Bush learned what an iconoclastic place Brattleboro is in a traditionally Republican state. About 200 protesters, some bearing hand-quilted banners with messages opposing nuclear weapons, peppered the Vice President with such a volley of slogans that he scrapped most of his speech on the Reagan Administration’s record on arms control. To date he had campaigned mostly in the South and Middle West and had not encountered such a barrage of heckling. Mr. Bush was speaking in the heart of nuclear-freeze country. His aides said later that he had not been surprised by the shouts of “No more years” and “Six more weeks” that kept him from being heard.
“Mr. Reagan, where’s the plan?” Walter F. Mondale challenged today. And thousands of trade unionists added in unison, “Where’s the plan?” Stepping up his attack on his Republican opponent for what he called “daily celluloid cameo performances,” the Democratic Presidential nominee assailed President Reagan for “refusing” not only to articulate his plans to reduce the Federal budget deficit over the next four years but also to discuss his foreign and domestic policies. “You know in the campaign in the primary I was heard to say something about ‘Where’s the beef?’ ” Mr. Mondale told thousands of buoyant and applauding members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “Today, I ask Mr. Reagan, ‘Where’s the plan, where’s your plan, let’s hear it.’ “
Walter F. Mondale, frustrated, said to a reporter, “Reagan’s not answering a single question. He’s not saying a single thing about the future. He’s not submitting himself to any environment where anybody could ask a question.” However, in an interview, the Democratic Presidential nominee seemed relaxed about his underdog candidacy.
The Army overpaid for guns because the service’s negotiators failed to follow Government procedures in contract negotiations, according to Pentagon auditors. A report by the Defense Department’s Inspector General concluded that the Army’s current $1.5 billion contract for 276 Sergeant York antiaircraft guns was at least $84 million too high.
A federal district judge has ordered that teamsters’ union ballots on a proposed contract renewal with the United Parcel Service be impounded, saying union leaders gave members little opportunity to consider the offer. In a ruling Wednesday that went against Jackie Presser, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Judge William B. Bryant sided with a dissident faction of the union. The faction contended that the proposed contract renewal was virtually imposed on the 90,000 union members who work for United Parcel. The results of the ratification vote have not been disclosed, and Judge Bryant ordered that if teamster leaders wished to resubmit the proposed contract for another vote, they could not do so for 15 days. A teamsters’ official here said the union would comply with the judge’s ruling and would resubmit the contract after 15 days.
The father of the singer Marvin Gaye pleaded no contest today to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his son during an argument on April 1. Michael Schiff, the defense attorney for Marvin Gay Sr., said the charge was reduced from first-degree murder on a plea bargain, and added that he believes he will be able to persuade the judge not to send Mr. Gay to prison. Mr. Gay, 70 years old, could face up to 13 years in prison when sentenced November 2 by Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer, Deputy District Attorney Dona Bracke said. His son, who added an “e” to his name when he began his singing career, was shot twice in the chest with a pistol on the eve of his 45th birthday.
James Dupree Henry, trembling and professing innocence, died in the Florida electric chair today for the murder of an 81- year-old man in a robbery. Mr. Henry, 34 years old, bade his mother and girlfriend farewell and ate raw oysters for the first time before he was put to death in the oak electric chair moments after a temporary stay of execution expired at 7 A.M. He was pronounced dead nine minutes later. “My final words are ‘I am innocent,’ ” Mr. Henry said before the death hood was dropped over his face. Mr. Henry was the 25th man executed in the United States since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death penalty in 1976, and the ninth man executed in Florida. Governor Bob Graham signed death warrants Wednesday for two more Florida inmates.
13 pesticides will be rechecked for possible health threats by the Environmental Protection Agency as part of the settlement of a suit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Efforts to save Florida citrus from the spread of a virulent disease were stepped up as officials moved to halt further damage to the $2.5 billion industry. Investigators tracking the citrus canker were offered convict labor to help destroy what experts believe will eventually amount to millions of citrus fruit trees that came in contact with infected plants.
San Diego’s Mayor was booked on a county grand jury indictment for perjury and conspiracy to violate election and financial-disclosure laws arising from his 1983 campaign. The Mayor, Roger Hedgecock, a maverick Republican, said the charges were politically motivated.
Health officials are puzzled by an unexpectedly severe whooping cough epidemic that has hit the Seattle, Washington, area. There have been more than 200 cases reported so far this year in the area, roughly 10 times the usual number, public health officials say. No deaths have been reported. Efforts to stem the disease have been riddled with controversy. Concerns about the safety of a vaccine were first raised in Britain in 1974 after adverse reactions, including convulsions and brain damage, were reported in infants given the vaccine. Use of the vaccine dropped off and major whooping cough epidemics hit Britain in 1977, 1979 and 1982. For the past four years there has been some resistance to use of the vaccine in the United States. Steve Helgerson of the county health department said a small number of the children involved in the Seattle epidemic are not immunized, but that is mainly because they are only one to two months of age. The vaccine is usually administered at two months.
“The Cosby Show” premieres on NBC-TV starring Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad.
Mike Witt stopped Kansas City on three hits, and Brian Downing cracked his 21st home run of the season tonight as the California Angels trimmed the Royals’ American League West lead to one-half game with a 2–0 victory. Minnesota, which won today, trails by one game. Witt (14–11), who struck out seven, was perfect through the first four innings, but Jorge Orta singled to lead off the fifth. The victory gave the Angels a split with the Royals in the four-game series here. The clubs play each other four more times next week in Kansas City. Fred Lynn singled home Juan Beniquez from third in the third inning off Mark Gubicza (10–13). Downing built the advantage to two runs with his homer into the left field seats off Gubicza with two down in the sixth.
Tom Brunansky scored from third base on a wild pitch in the 13th inning to give the Minnesota Twins a 5–4 victory over the Chicago White Sox and snap a three- game losing streak. Brunansky drew a walk off a White Sox reliever, Bert Roberge (3-3), to start the 13th, then moved to second on a sacrifice by Gary Gaetti. Brunansky took third on a passed ball charged to Joel Skinner and scored on the next pitch when Roberge threw the ball into the dirt and off to the right. A Twins reliever, Ron Davis, pitched two innings and struck out three batters, raising his record to 7-9. Trailing, 4-3, the White Sox tied the score in the eighth on a pinch-hit home run by Carlton Fisk, his 20th homer of the season. The homer broke an 0-for-10 pinch-hitting streak for Fisk, who was batting for the shortstop, Jerry Dybzinski. Singles by Gary Gaetti, Tim Teufel and Kirby Puckett enabled Minnesota to take a 4-3 lead in the seventh.
The Baltimore Orioles roll over the visiting Boston Red Sox, 15–1. Ken Singleton paces the Birds with a grand slam, off Al Nipper, for his 246th and last career home run. His previous two homers were also grand slams, the last coming on September 1st. Mike Young drove in five runs with two singles and his 15th homer, and Al Bumbry contributed three doubles in a 20-hit attack.
The Toronto Blue Jays downed the Milwaukee Brewers, 6–4. Dave Collins, who stole two bases and scored three runs, doubled in his second run of the game in a three-run seventh inning to snap a 3–3 tie at Toronto. Dave Stieb (15–7) was the winner for Toronto. Jim Key got his 10th save. Bob Gibson (1-4) got the loss.
The San Diego Padres clinch their first National League West title since entering the league in 1969 with a 5–4 win over the San Francisco Giants. The key blow is winning pitcher Tim Lollar’s 3-run home run, his 3rd home run of the season. After the game they had to wait until the evening for the Astros to lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6–2, in Houston, to become champions. The second-place Astros dropped 10½ games behind the Padres, who have only 10 games left. “This is great, man,” said Terry Kennedy, the Padre catcher, moments after the Padres had clinched a tie. “I wish this could have been a night game so we could’ve celebrated on the field.” Lollar allowed eight hits, walked four and struck out six before being relieved in the sixth inning. Greg Harris and Dave Dravecky combined to finish the game. Dravecky pitched the final two and two-thirds innings. When he retired Steve Nicoscia on a grounder to second, the players spilled onto the field, forming a cluster between home plate and first base and accepting a standing ovation from the crowd of 15,766.
Orel Hershiser, the rookie, scattered eight hits as Los Angeles Dodgers eliminated the Houston Astros with a 6–2 triumph. Hershiser (10–8) struck out five and did not allow a walk in his seventh complete game of the season. Nolan Ryan (12–11) lasted only one and one-third innings before leaving with a strained left hamstring. Ryan struck out one batter to give him 3,874 for his career, two more than Steve Carlton of Philadelphia. The Dodgers, leading by 2–1, broke open the game by scoring four runs in the eighth inning for a 6–1 lead. Dave Anderson hit a sacrifice fly, Greg Brock had a run-scoring single and Candy Maldonado slammed a single for two more runs.
The first-place Chicago Cubs break 2 million in home attendance for the first time as 33,651 watch them lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7–6. A sacrifice fly by Johnny Ray broke a 6–6 tie in the eighth inning as the Pirates gained a three-game sweep. The number of Cub victories or Met defeats remained at three for the Cubs to clinch the National League East title. The Cubs have lost four consecutive games only one other time this season. The Pirates, trailing by 6–5, loaded the bases in the eighth inning with none out against the losing pitcher, Lee Smith (9–7) on a walk to the pinch-hitter Mitchell Page, a single by Joe Orsulak and a walk to Marvell Wynne. Lee Lacy tied the score with a fielder’s choice grounder, and Ray lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Orsulak. Kent Tekulve (3–9), the fourth Pirate pitcher, worked two-thirds of an inning for the victory. John Candelaria came in with one out and two on in the eighth and gained his first save.
The St. Louis Cardinals edged the Montreal Expos, 3–2. Andy Van Slyke hit a two-run home run, and the relief pitcher Bruce Sutter added to his National League record with his 43rd save for St. Louis. Willie McGee and Terry Pendleton each stole bases, giving the Cardinals 201 steals this season. It marked the third straight year St. Louis has reached the 200 mark. The St. Louis Browns exceeded 200 steals four consecutive seasons, from 1913 through 1916.
The Atlanta Braves thumped the Cincinnati Reds, 9–3. Atlanta scored four in the third, and four more in the fifth inning. Gerald Perry hit a three-run homer, his sixth home run of the year, in the third inning against Reds’ starter Jeff Russell (6–18). Perry drove in the other two in the fifth off reliever Tom Hume. Right-hander Rick Camp (7–6) earned the victory, scattering six hits over seven innings.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1216.54 (+3.53).
Born:
Brian Joubert, French figure skater (Men’s Singles World Champion, 2007), in Poitiers, Vienne, France.
Ray McDonald, NFL defensive end (San Francisco 49ers), in Pahokee, Florida.
Died:
Steve Goodman, 36, American folk singer and songwriter (“City of New Orleans”; “Chicken Cordon Blues”), of leukemia.
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