Muammar Gaddafi US companies to cease operating in the country, although several hundred workers remained when the Libyan government doubled their pay. Diplomatic relations also broke down with the UK, after Libyan diplomats were accused in the killing of Yvonne Fletcher, a British policewoman stationed outside their London embassy, in April 1984. In Spring 1986, the US Navy again began performing exercises in the Gulf of Sirte; the Libyan military retaliated, but failed as the US sank several Libyan ships. After the US accused Libya of orchestrating the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, in which two American soldiers died, Reagan decided to retaliate
1984 Libyan hostage incident shots from the Libyan People's Bureau. In 1986, a British businessman who had worked for Colonel Gaddafi's regime reported WPC Fletcher's killer had been hanged as soon as he returned to Libya. Following the breaking of diplomatic relations with Libya, the British Embassy in Tripoli was evacuated by the British and ransacked by the Libyans. A skeleton staff of British diplomats took up office in the Italian Embassy. 14–16 May 1984 Four further British men in Libya were rounded up and detained as hostages against the four arrested Libyan nationals in Britain by those claiming to be officials of the