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1983 Beirut barracks bombings: what Wikipedia removed

The 1983 Beirut barracks bombings killed 307 people when two truck bombs hit U.S. and French peacekeepers. Through 2020 the opening noted that “an Iranian group called the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign had erected a monument… to commemorate the 1983 bombings and its ‘martyrs’.” Today’s opening no longer mentions this, though martyr survives three times in the body. A reader today does not learn that an Iranian group memorialized the bombers as martyrs.

The word “martyr” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 3. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

word20052010201520206 October 20232025
martyr001200
terror121122
jihad011111

Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.

  • A rewording of the passage on the bomb’s estimated size, no information lost.
  • A reader no longer learns that an Iranian group erected a monument in Tehran commemorating the bombers as martyrs.

2005 (revision 17904793):

The 1983 barracks bombing was a major terrorist incident during the Lebanese Civil War . It occurred on October 23 , 1983 , in Beirut , Lebanon , where an international peacekeeping force was set up after the Israeli invasion in 1982 . The mushroom cloud after the attack.

2025 (revision 1298106890):

1983 bombings in Beirut, Lebanon On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs were detonated at buildings in Beirut , Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War . The attack killed 307 people: 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians and two of the attackers. Early that Sunday morning, the first suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb at the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (Battalion Landing Team – BLT 1/8) of the 2nd Marine Division , killing 220 marines , 18 sailors and three soldiers , making this incident the deadliest single-day de…

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