View source for 1992 Buenos Aires Israeli embassy bombing

{{Short description|Suicide bombing in Argentina}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2012}}
{{Infobox terrorist attack
| title            = Attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires
| partof           = Spillover of the [[South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000)]]
| location         = [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina
| map              = <div style="width:250px; float:none; clear:none;"><div style="position:relative; padding:0; width:250px;">[[File:Buenos Aires location map.svg|250px]]
<br /><div style="position: absolute; z-index: 2; top: 45.2%; left: 77.8%; height: 0; width: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"><div style="position: relative; text-align: center; left: -3px; top: -3px; width: 6px; font-size: 6px;">[[File:Red pog.svg|7px]]</div><div style="font-size:90%; line-height: 110%; z-index:90; position: relative; top: -1.5em; width: 6em; right: 6.5em; text-align: center;"><span style="padding: 1px;">'''The attack site'''</span></div></div></div></div>
| coordinates      = {{coord|34|35|30|S|58|22|49|W|display=inline}}
| date             = 17 March 1992<br />14:42 pm (UTC-3)
| image            = 
| caption          = 
| target           = Israeli embassy
| time             = 2:42 pm
| timezone         = [[Greenwich Mean Time|GMT]]-3
| type             = [[Suicide bombing]]
| fatalities       = 29 victims<br />(4 Israeli civilians<br />and 25 Argentine civilians) <br /> and the suicide bomber
| injuries         = 242 civilians
| perps            = [[Islamic Jihad Organization]] claimed responsibility<ref name=terrorism/><br />Hezbollah operative [[Imad Mughniyah]] charged by Argentina<br />Hezbollah operative [[Amer Mohamed Akil Rada]]<ref name=Sanctions/>
}}
{{Campaignbox South Lebanon 1982–2000}}

The '''attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires''' was a [[suicide bombing]] attack on the building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina, located in Buenos Aires, which was carried out on 17 March 1992. 29 civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured.

==The attack==
[[File:Arroyo 910 - Embajada de Israel en Argentina.jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Former Israeli Embassy before the attack.]]
On 17 March 1992, at 2:42 pm (UTC−3), a pick-up truck driven by a [[suicide bomber]] and loaded with explosives smashed into the front of the Israeli Embassy located on the corner of Arroyo and Suipacha and detonated. The embassy, a Catholic church, and a nearby school building were destroyed. Four Israelis died, but most of the victims were Argentine civilians, many of them children.<ref>Bergman, 171.</ref> The blast killed 29 and wounded 242.<ref name=terrorism>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/irp/threat/terror_92/review.html|title=1992 Global Terrorism: The Year in Review|access-date=May 18, 2016}}</ref> It was Argentina's deadliest terror attack until the 1994 [[AMIA bombing]] and it remains the deadliest attack on an Israeli diplomatic mission.

===Fatalities===
Priest Juan Carlos Brumana was one of the people killed in the suicide bombing. He died in the Catholic Church Mater Admirabilis that is in front of the embassy.<ref name="cae'12">{{cite web|last=Calderon|first=Horacio|title=Winds of War in the Levant and Middle East The Hariri and AMIA cases|url=http://edoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/HALCoRe_derivate_00005278/CAEI_14_2.pdf|publisher=CAEI|access-date=20 July 2012|format=Working Papers 14}}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Among the dead there were two Israeli women who were the wives of the embassy's consul and first secretary.<ref name=lat92/>

==Responsibility==
A group called [[Islamic Jihad Organization]], which has been linked to [[Iran]] and possibly [[Hezbollah]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/interviews/baer.html|title=Interviews - Robert Baer - Terror And Tehran - FRONTLINE - PBS|website=[[PBS]] |date=May 2, 2002|access-date=May 18, 2016}}</ref> claimed responsibility;<ref name=terrorism/> their stated motive for the attack was [[Targeted assassination of Abbas al-Musawi|Israel's assassination]] of Hezbollah [[Secretary-General of Hezbollah|Secretary-General]] Sayed [[Abbas al-Musawi]] in February 1992.<ref name=lat92>{{cite news|last=Long|first=William R.|title=Islamic Jihad Says It Bombed Embassy; Toll 21|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-19-mn-5905-story.html|access-date=23 July 2012|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=19 March 1992}}</ref> Islamic Jihad also released surveillance footage they took of the embassy before the blast.<ref name=terrorism/>

After the bombing, Israel sent investigators to Argentina to search for clues. They learned that the bombers planned the attack in the [[Triple Frontier|Tri-Border area]], where the borders of Argentina, [[Paraguay]], and [[Brazil]] meet and which has a large Muslim population.<ref name=ronen>Bergman, 172.</ref> Messages intercepted by the American [[National Security Agency]] revealed Iranian knowledge of the impending attack, as well as the complicity of Hezbollah operative [[Imad Mughniyah]].<ref name=ronen/> In fact, Mughniyah was formally charged by Argentina with participating in the bombings of the Israeli embassy.<ref name=norton/>

In May 1998, Moshen Rabbani (the Cultural Attaché in the Iranian Embassy in Argentina until December 1997) was detained in Germany, and the Argentine government expelled seven Iranian diplomats from the country, stating that it had "convincing proof" of Iranian involvement in the bombing. However, none of the suspects were prosecuted. The attack occurred when Iran and Argentina were hoping for a resumption of nuclear cooperation, although Argentina had announced the suspension of the shipments of nuclear materials to Iran a couple months before the bombing.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061119120803/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK15Ak03.html Argentina's Iranian nuke connection], ''Gareth Porter'', 15 November 2006</ref> A number of sources<ref name="Ranstorp">{{cite book|last=Ranstorp|first=Magnus|title=Hizb'allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis|location=New York|publisher=St. Martins Press|year=1997|page=[https://archive.org/details/hizballahinleban00rans/page/107 107]|isbn=0-312-16288-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/hizballahinleban00rans/page/107}}</ref><ref>[http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/hizbalah.htm United States Department of State, April 2005] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060725231131/http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/hizbalah.htm |date=July 25, 2006 }}</ref> report on Hezbollah involvement with the assistance of [[Ba'athist Syria|Syria]]. Hezbollah denies these claims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lebanon.com/news/local/2003/3/20.htm|title=Lebanon.com Newswire - Local News March 20 2003|access-date=May 18, 2016}}</ref>

In 1999, the Argentine government issued an arrest warrant for Imad Mughniyah in connection with this attack and the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 85. It is suspected that the two attacks are linked.<ref name=norton>Norton, Augustus Richard, ''Hezbollah: A Short History'', Princeton University Press, 2007, p.79</ref>

In 2023, the United States sanctioned Hezbollah operative [[Amer Mohamed Akil Rada]], who was active in Latin America for over a decade, for his reported role in this attack and the [[1994 AMIA bombing]].<ref name="Sanctions">{{cite web |title=Treasury Designates Hizballah Operatives and Financial Facilitators in South America and Lebanon |url=https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1726 |website=U.S. Department of the Treasury |publisher=Office of Foreign Assets Control |access-date=14 September 2023 |date=2023-09-12}}</ref>

In April 2024, Argentina's second highest court ruled that the Iranian government was responsible for the bombing, and that it was carried out in retaliation for Argentina reneging on agreements to transfer nuclear material to Iran. The ruling also characterized Iran as a terrorist state.<ref>{{cite news |title=Argentine Court Says Iran Was Behind Israeli Embassy and Jewish Center Attacks |work=The New York Times |date=12 April 2024 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/world/middleeast/argentina-iran-1992-1994-attack.html |access-date=14 April 2024 |archive-date=13 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240413210309/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/world/middleeast/argentina-iran-1992-1994-attack.html |url-status=live |last1=Politi |first1=Daniel }}</ref>

==Aftermath==
{{more citations needed|section|date=March 2017}}

===Kirchner on the case===
When he was president, [[Néstor Kirchner]] pronounced that allowing these two incidents to happen, with no real inquiries to be followed, equalled a "national disgrace".<ref name=dag18jul>{{cite news|title=Terror, død og diplomati|url=http://www.dagbladet.no/magasinet/2003/08/28/377100.html|access-date=4 March 2013|newspaper=Dagbladet|date=18 July 1994}}</ref> He reopened, and kept open files from these incidents, most to be read by Justice [[Juan Jose Galeano]]. In the same process Kirchner hoped to lift the ban for former Intelligence Officers (Argentine) to testify. A former president of Argentina (his widow, [[Cristina Fernández de Kirchner]]) also claimed that she wanted to get to the bottom of the case.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}} Argentinian federal prosecutor, [[Alberto Nisman]], was assigned to investigate the bombing, but one day before he was scheduled to report on his findings, he was found dead in his home on 18 January 2015.<ref>{{cite news |last=Diaz |first=Shlomi |title=In Argentina they have confirmed: Alberto Nisman's Death a Homicide |pages= 19 |language=he |publisher=Israel Hayom |date=28 December 2017 }}</ref>

===Commemoration===
Today there is a memorial set up in place of where the building stood. In the memorial plaza stand twenty one trees and seven benches in memory of the victims. A plaque describing the event and listing the victims is located in the memorial in both Hebrew and Spanish.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

<gallery widths="180px" heights="120px">
Plaza Embajada de Israel.jpg|The memorial to the victims of the bombing
Plaza Embajada de Israel Trees.jpg|The memorial to the victims of the bombing
File:Plaza de la Memoria ID 198.jpg|The memorial to the victims of the bombing
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|Argentina|Judaism}}
*[[1994 London Israeli Embassy bombing]]
*[[Alas Chiricanas Flight 901]], the bombing of a Panamanian plane, whose casualties included 12 Jews, the day after the AMIA bombing, suspected to have been carried out by Hezbollah
*[[Argentina–Israel relations]]
*[[History of the Jews in Argentina]]
*[[List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)]]
*[[Secretariat of Intelligence]]
*[[Terrorism in Argentina]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Sources==
*[[Ronen Bergman|Bergman, Ronen]]. ''The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power''. Simon and Schuster, 2008. {{ISBN|1-4165-5839-X}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a031792israelembassybomb Context of 'March 17, 1992: Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires Is Bombed, Hezbollah and Iran Accused Despite Lack of Evidence'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004170509/http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a031792israelembassybomb |date=October 4, 2011 }} -''History Commons''

{{Terrorist attacks against Israelis in the 1990s}}
{{Carlos Menem}}
{{Iran–Israel proxy conflict}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Israeli embassy}}
[[Category:1990s in Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:1992 in Argentina]]
[[Category:1992 in international relations]]
[[Category:1992 in Israel]]
[[Category:Suicide bombings in 1992]]
[[Category:Anti-Israeli sentiment in South America]]
[[Category:Argentina–Iran relations]]
[[Category:Argentina–Israel relations]]
[[Category:Iran–Israel proxy conflict]]
[[Category:Attacks on diplomatic missions in Argentina]]
[[Category:Attacks on diplomatic missions of Israel]]
[[Category:1992 building bombings]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorism in Argentina]]
[[Category:Islamic Shia terrorism]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorist incidents in 1992]]
[[Category:Jewish Argentine history]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:March 1992 in South America]]
[[Category:March 1992 crimes]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1992]]
[[Category:Presidency of Carlos Menem]]
[[Category:School bombings]]
[[Category:South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000)]]
[[Category:Suicide car and truck bombings in Argentina]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Argentina in the 1990s]]
[[Category:Car and truck bombings in 1992]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in South America in 1992|Argentina]]
[[Category:Unsolved murders in Argentina]]
[[Category:Building bombings in South America]]
[[Category:Hezbollah attacks]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murder in Argentina]]
[[Category:Attacks on schools in 1992]]