USA tiltaler libyer for Lockerbie-bomben som drepte 270 mennesker

På dagen 32 år etter det verste terrorangrepet i moderne britisk historie har USA tiltalt en tredje mann for å ha stått bak bombingen av Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie i Skottland. Bomben drepte 259 passasjerer og 11 personer bosatt i Lockerbie. Flyet var på vei fra London til New York.

Den tiltalte terroristen er Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, som også skal ha vært etteretningsoffiser og bombemaker for den libyske diktoren Gaddafi. Han sitter for tiden i fengsel i Libya hvor han er dømt for å ha bygget en annen sprengladning. Abu Agela Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi skal også ha deltatt i å få smuglet bomben ombord på Pan Am flyet i 1988. Terroristen er begjært utlevert til USA.

I en pressemelding skriver justisminister Barr at det er mange som ikke er gamle nok til å huske dette forferdelige terrorangrepet:

On this day 32 years ago, December 21, 1988, at 7:03 p.m. local time, a bomb destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew 31,000 feet above Lockerbie, Scotland. The massive Boeing 747 plane, known as the “Clipper Maid of the Seas,” exploded and fell to the ground in countless pieces scattered across 840 square miles, nearly the entire width of Scotland. The explosion killed all 259 people on board—243 passengers and 16 crew members, including 190 Americans. Falling debris claimed the lives of 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground, many of whom were in their homes and had just sat down for dinner. The Lockerbie bombing remains the deadliest single terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom, and the second deadliest terrorist attack for Americans—surpassed only by the 9/11 attacks.

Well over a third of Americans alive today were not yet born on the day of the Lockerbie bombing or would not have been old enough to remember it. But for those of us who do remember, that tragic event and the iconic images of its aftermath, some of which are displayed here today, are forever seared in our memories.