After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the massacres of Sabra and Shatila, the UN sent a mediation force to Beirut that included the United States, France and Italy. The Muslim factions complained to the United States for supplying with arms and providing military aid to the Christian forces that fought in the Chouf region against the Russians and Shiites. On the other hand, Ronald Reagan sent William Buckley to Beirut as CIA director, who had been in charge of the clandestine program of the “Phenix” death squads in Viet Nam. On April 18, 1983, a truck loaded with two tones of explosives blew up in front of the US Embassy. As a consequence, the building collapsed and 63 people were killed, among them, all the members of the local CIA office. Buckley, who escaped from the attack, was kidnapped and murdered by the Islamic Jidah a year later. As a response, the CIA tried to assassinate Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah on March 8, 1985, by unsuccessfully using a bomb car. The explosion killed 80 people and severely injured 175.