USS Liberty Incident (1967)

USS Liberty Incident (1967). Hillsborough County Veterans Memorial Park. , The USS Liberty Incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two Marines, and one civilian), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi (29.3 mi; 47.2 km) northwest from the Egyptian city of Ansh. , Israel apologized for the attack saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. Both the Israeli and U.S. governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the ships identity, though others, including survivors of the attack have rejected these conclusions and maintain the attack was deliberate. , In May, 1968, the Israeli government paid US$3,323,500 (US$22.5 million in 2014) as full payment to the families of the 34 men killed in the attack. In March 1969, Israel paid a further $3,566,457 in compensation to the men who had been wounded. On 16 December 1988 it agreed to pay $6 million as settlement for the final US sum of $17,132,709 for material damage to the Liberty for repairs plus 13 million in interest. , USS Liberty was originally the 7,725 long tons (7,849 t) (light) civilian cargo vessel Simmons Victory, a mass-produced standard-design Victory Ship, the follow-on series to the famous Liberty Ship which supplied the United Kingdom and Allied troops with cargo. It was acquired by the United States Navy, converted to an Auxiliary Research Ship (AGTR), and began its first deployment in 1965 to waters off the west coast of Africa. It carried out several more operations during the next two years.