[5] The bomb explosion, estimated to have been equivalent to 200 kg (440 lbs) of dynamite,[3] occurred in the western Beirut suburb of Bir al-Abed, outside an apartment building.

It killed worshippers, mostly women and girls, leaving Friday prayer services at an adjacent mosque, and destroyed two 7-story apartment buildings and a cinema.

"[8] In 1976, Gerald Ford became the first U.S. president to forbid political assassination, in the wake of the Church Commission,[9] issuing Executive Order 11905.

[9] In June 1985, the Washington Post reported that a CIA supported counter terrorism unit, made up of Lebanese Intelligence officers and others, was responsible for the bombing.

A House intelligence committee, in June 1985, said there was no evidence the CIA "encouraged or participated in any terrorist activity in Lebanon" or had knowledge of the bombing beforehand.

[1][2] In 1987, reporter Bob Woodward wrote that CIA director William Casey, on his deathbed, had admitted personal culpability in the attack, which he suggests was carried out with funding from Saudi Arabia.

[13] The U.S. National Security Advisor, Robert McFarlane, stated that those responsible for the bomb may have had American training, but asserted that they were "rogue operative[s]," and the CIA in no way sanctioned or supported the attack.