On this day in 1991, Islamic militants in Lebanon release kidnapped American journalist Terry Anderson after 2,454 days in captivity.
As chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press,
Anderson covered the long-running civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990). On March
16, 1985, he was kidnapped on a west Beirut street while leaving a tennis
court. His captors took him to the southern suburbs of the city, where he was
held prisoner in an underground dungeon for the next six-and-a-half years.
Anderson was one of 92 foreigners (including 17 Americans)
abducted during Lebanon’s bitter civil war. The kidnappings were linked to
Hezbollah, or the Party of God, a militant Shiite Muslim organization formed in
1982 in reaction to Israel’s military presence in Lebanon. They seized several
Americans, including Anderson, soon after Kuwaiti courts jailed 17 Shiites
found guilty of bombing the American and French embassies there in 1983.
Hezbollah in Lebanon received financial and spiritual support from Iran, where
prominent leaders praised the bombers and kidnappers for performing their duty
to Islam.
U.S. relations with Iran–and with Syria, the other major
foreign influence in Lebanon–showed signs of improving by 1990, when the civil
war drew to a close, aided by Syria’s intervention on behalf of the Lebanese
army. Eager to win favor from the U.S. in order to promote its own economic
goals, Iran used its influence in Lebanon to engineer the release of nearly all
the hostages over the course of 1991.
Anderson returned to the U.S. and was reunited with his
family, including his daughter Suleme, born three months after his capture. In
1999, he sued the Iranian government for $100 million, accusing it of
sponsoring his kidnappers; he received a multi-million dollar settlement.
No comments:
Post a Comment