Suez Front Extended

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 13

Suez Front Extended

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TEL AVIV, May 9. Israeli commandos thrust into Jordan today for the first time this year, and blew up houses occupied by Arab guerrillas.

The action followed anl Israeli air raid against! a suspected guerrilla base in another part of Jordan. On Israel's western frontier, Israeli' and Egyptian forces were reported today to have extended the front of their Suez Canal artillery exchanges to include the Port Said-Port Fuad area at the northern end of the waterway. Military observers say the extension of the fighting along the Suez Canal to the two northernmost cities may be a significant development in the conflict that began in earnest about two months ago. Port Said and Port Fuad stand on either side of the canal's Mediterranean entrance. Both are in Egyptian hands. Port Fuad was the only site on the eastern bank of the canal to have been by-passed by the Israelis in the six-day war on June, 1967. •The reason for that decision, now regretted by some

(Israeli officials was largely (tactical. The cease-fire line begins 19 miles south of Port Fuad because the eastern bank of the canal north of that point consists of an undefendable dike.