West Berlin discotheque bombing

West Berlin discotheque bombing
Part of terrorism in Germany
Roxy-Palast, the building in which the discotheque La Belle was located
LocationHauptstraße 78, Bezirk Schöneberg, West Berlin, West Germany[a]
Coordinates52°28′23″N 13°20′12″E / 52.47306°N 13.33667°E / 52.47306; 13.33667
Date5 April 1986; 38 years ago (1986-04-05)
1:45 a.m. (CET/CEST)
Attack type
Bombing
WeaponsPlastic explosive
Deaths3 (2 US soldiers, 1 Turkish civilian)[1]
Injured229[1]
PerpetratorsVerena Chanaa, Yasir Shraydi, Musbah Eter, Ali Chanaa

On 5 April 1986, three people were killed and 229 injured when La Belle discothèque was bombed in the Friedenau locality (then part of Schöneberg, and since 2001 part of the merged district of Tempelhof-Schöneberg) of West Berlin. The entertainment venue was commonly frequented by United States soldiers;[2][3] two of the dead and 79 of the injured were Americans.[1]

Libya was accused by the US government of sponsoring the bombing, before US president Ronald Reagan ordered retaliatory strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya ten days later. The operation was widely seen as an attempt to kill colonel Muammar Gaddafi.[4] However, in the bombing's aftermath, this claim was met with widespread skepticism. In 1987, Manfred Ganschow, the head of the West German team investigating the bombing, said that there was no evidence pointing towards Libya, a belief which was corroborated by numerous intelligence agencies in Europe at the time, according to a BBC report.[5]: 81  In 2001, following a four-year German trial, often described as "murky"[2] and marred by what the court called a "limited willingness" by the American and German governments to share evidence,[2][1] it was found that the bombing had been "planned by the Libyan Intelligence Service and the Libyan embassy",[1] but absolved Gaddafi of responsibility.[2][1][6]


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  1. ^ a b c d e f Erlanger, Steven (14 November 2001). "4 Guilty in Fatal 1986 Berlin Disco Bombing Linked to Libya". New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d Malinarich, Nathalie (13 November 2001). "Flashback: The Berlin disco bombing". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  3. ^ "World News Briefs;Lebanon Hands Suspect Over to German Court". New York Times. 24 May 1996. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Flashback: The Berlin disco bombing". BBC News. 13 November 2001. Archived from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  5. ^ Chomsky, Noam (2002). Understanding power : the indispensable Chomsky. Peter R. Mitchell, John Schoeffel. New York: New Press. ISBN 1-56584-703-2. OCLC 46936001.
  6. ^ "Four jailed by Berlin court for disco bombing". The Irish Times. 13 November 2001. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 13 October 2021.