| 1986 United States bombing of Libya (Operation El Dorado Canyon) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Cold War | |||||||||
 An American 48th Tactical Fighter Wing F-111F aircraft takes off from RAF Lakenheath in April 1986 to participate in an air strike against Libya. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 United States |
 Libya | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Ronald Reagan Caspar Weinberger |
Muammar Gaddafi | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
One F-111 shot down 2 aircrew killed[3] Libyan claim: 3 aircraft shot down[4] |
45 soldiers and officials killed 3–5 IL-76s destroyed 14 MiG-23s destroyed 2 helicopters destroyed 5 major ground radars destroyed[5] | ||||||||
| 15–30 Libyan civilians killed | |||||||||
| ||
|---|---|---|
|
Affiliations Military (Armed Forces) Leadership (History)
Elections and referendums  .svg){kind=small} |
||
.jpg)
The United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps carried out air strikes, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, against Libya on 15 April 1986 in retaliation for the West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier, which U.S. President Ronald Reagan blamed on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. There were 40 reported Libyan casualties; one U.S. plane was shot down. One of the claimed Libyan deaths was of a baby girl, reported to be Gaddafi's daughter, Hana Gaddafi.[6] However, there are doubts both as to whether she was really killed, or whether she truly existed.[7]
- ^ Martel, William C. Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Military Policy, p. 162. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- ^ Frey, B.S. (2004). Dealing with Terrorism: Stick Or Carrot?. Edward Elgar Publishing, Incorporated. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-84542-146-5.
- ^ Leone, Dario (14 April 2019). "The sad story of 'Karma 52', the only F-111 lost during Operation El Dorado Canyon". The Aviation Geek Club.
- ^ Leone, Dario (21 September 2019). "The Libyan Scud Attack on Lampedusa and the Italian Retaliation against Gaddafi that never was". The Aviation Geek Club.
- ^ Pollack, Kenneth M. Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948–1991, University of Nebraska Press, 2002
1 French Embassy was hit - ^ Hilsum, Lindsey (2012). Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0571288052.
- ^ Walker, Peter (26 August 2011). "Gaddafi's daughter Hana: dead or a practising doctor?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 June 2016.