Beirut Marnies to 'Shoot to Kill' As Bombing Death Toll Hits 214

BEIRUT, Lebanon--U.S. Marines were ordered into sand-bagged bunkers yesterday and told to "shoot to kill" anyone approaching their camp after three trucks that officials feared might be filled with explosives drove nearby.

The Pentagon said the death toll from Sunday's terrorist bombing of a U.S. Marine command post rose to 214 as six more bodies were recovered and one man died of injuries in a hospital in West Germany.

The suicide strike was carried out by a main driving a truck packed with a ton of explosives. It was the bloodiest attack against the U.S. military since Vietnam.

The Marine commander, Col. Timothy Geraghty, told reporters 20 bodies were still in the rubble. About 70 Americans were injured, many of whom are being treated in military hospitals in West Germany, Italy, and Cyprus.

French spokesman Lt. Col. Phillipe DeLongeaux said 38 French troops were killed, 15 wounded, and 20 were missing in the bombing at a French command seconds after the attack on the Americans.

They are part of a multinational force that arrived in Beirut 13 months ago to help the Lebanese government restore order in the war-torn country.

About 300 Marine troops arrived at the camp to replace their fallen comrades and the Marine commandant. Gen. Paul X. Kelly, arrived to inspect the jagged concrete wreckage of the Marine building.

Kelley said he thought security at the base was "very adequate" and that it would have been difficult to prevent the attack.

The tense Marines were ordered to their highest state of alert and reporters were told to get into bunkers or leave the area after suspicious trucks were seen around the airport.

"There have been three vehicles spotted driving around the area. There are suspicions that they could contain explosives," said Marine Capt. Wayne Jones. Officials gave no further information about the trucks, but the Marines remained on alert throughout the day.

Another Marine spokesman, Maj. Robert Jordan said anyone approaching the gate to the camp would be shot." Anyone who comes up there is going to be dead." Anyone who comes up there is going to be dead," Jordan told reporters." It will be a shoot-to-kill situation."

Marine guards took over the seafront boulevard in front of the British Embassy, crouching with guns leveled at those who ventured nearby. The U.S. Embassy has had its temporary offices at the British Embassy since terrorists blew up the American Embassy April 18, killing 17 Americans and 32 others.

U.S. Embassy spokesman John Stewart said the "extra precautions" were ordered because of "a warning of potential threat....Some sort of indirect, indefinite threat received by somebody from somebody."

An anonymous bomb threat also was phoned to Beirut International Airport Tuesday morning. But a 10 a.m. deadline passed with no explosion and airport officials, used to frequent bomb threats, did not close the terminal.