The Chadian – Libyan conflict ( 1978 – 1987 ) ended in disaster for Libya in 1987 with the Toyota War . France supported Chad in this conflict and two years later on 19 September 1989 , a French airliner , UTA Flight 772 , was destroyed by an in-flight explosion for which Libyan agents were convicted '' in absentia '' . The incident bore close similarities to the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 ( the '' Lockerbie Bombing '' ) a year earlier . The downing of these two airliners along with the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing seemed to establish a pattern of reprisal attacks — in the form of terrorist bombings — by Libya or at least Libyan agents . The United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya for these two acts ( with UN Security Council Resolutions 731 , 748 and 883 ) . The UN eventually lifted these sanctions ( with Resolution 1506 ) in 2003 when Libya " accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials , renounced terrorism and arranged for payment of appropriate compensation for the families of the victims . " In 2008 Libya established a fund to compensate victims of these three terrorist acts ( and the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi )
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Foreign relations of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi