In June, 1976, U.S. Ambassador Francis Meloy and his economic counselor were assassinated in Beirut by Palestinian sympathizers. In August, 1980, as U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean was driving to his residence in a suburb of Lebanon's capital, his bullet-proof car was riddled with machine-gun fire—this attempt on his life later claimed by the "Front for the Liberation of Lebanon From Foreigners," a right-wing and pro-Christian group that accused the U.S. of aiding the Palestinians. Between 1978 and 1982 factions tied to Palestinian guerrillas fired rockets at the U.S. embassy on four separate occasions. In April, 1983, the bombing of the embassy, took a toll of sixty-three lives; the first group to claim "credit" was a littleknown pro-Iranian faction