At 1:40 am on April 5th 1986 a two kilogramm bomb made of Semtex plastic explosives blows up the La Belle Discothek, a club located in the “Friedenau” district of Berlin

The disco was popular with American service men stationed in Berlin. The bomb was filled with shrapnel and placed next to the dance-floor.
Sergeant Kenneth Ford (21) and a turkish woman died instantly. Sergeant James Goins (25) died later in the hospital. Aprox. 303 people were wounded. Most of them still suffer from the terrorist attack as of today.

Intercepted messages and telegrafs from Libya identified its Libya and its leader Gaddafi as the brain behind this act of terror.

Ten days after the bomb went off the Lybian capital Tripoli and the city of Benghazi were bombed by the Operation El Dorade Canyon by US Air Force planes.
Colonel Gaddafi survived the bombings because he got a hint from his contacts in Italy.

The La Belle bombing was intended as revenge for the sinking of Libyan patrol boats by the US in march 1986.

Only after the reunification of the two Germany`s and the fall of the Berlin Wall evidence could be collected when STASI files were opened for investigation.

The State attorney Mehlis encountered Musbah Eter who had formerly worked at the embassy of Libya in East Berlin as one of the main agents behind the attack. Eter and four other suspects (Yasser Shraydi, Verena Chaana and Ali Chaana)were arrested and put on trial in 1997.

The trial lasted four years. Musbah Eter was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The two other men sentenced were Yasser Shraydi who got a sentence of 14 years and Ali Chanaa (sentenced to 12 years) the latter also working for the STASI.

The other two suspects were Chanaa’s German wife Verena who got inspired by Shraydi and her sister Andrea Häusler. The sisters often went out to the club where American soldiers hung out.

Verena Chanaa placed the bomb into the club accompanied by her sister. Verena was charged with murder and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Andrea Häusler was aquitted because there was no prove that she knew about the bomb.