SUCCESSES CLAIMED BY GUERRILLAS

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33355, 13 October 1973, Page 15

SUCCESSES CLAIMED BY GUERRILLAS

(By FRANK HAWKINS, of the Associated Press, through N.Z.P.A.) BEIRUT, October 12. The Palestinian guerrillas say that their forces are fighting behind Israeli lines and on four other fronts as part of the war against Israel.

Their over-all role in the fighting has been described as modest by observers, but for the guerrillas, long frustrated by restrictions on their actions by Arab Governments and the intimidation of the superior Israeli forces, the war marks a satisfying return to action. Observers estimate the guerrillas have thrown some 15,000 commandos into the fighting under the leadership of Yassar Arafat, the head of Al Fatah.

a train near Vienna by two Arabs who said they belonged to the “eagles of the Palestinian Revolution.” This led to the Austrian authorities’ announcing they were closing transit facilities for Soviet Jews migrating to Israel. Most of the guerrillas are believed to be fighting with Syrians on the Golan Heights. The Saiqa units, the best equipped of the guerrillas, have jeeps, anti-tank guns, bazookas, mortars, and small surface-to-air missiles. Guerrilla communiques, issued from their war headquarters in Damascus and Beirut, have laid heavy stress on guerrilla raids into Israel. They have said nothing about the fighting on the Golan Heights. The guerrillas say that about 500 commandos behind Israeli lines have rocketed and shelled various Israeli Army and civilian installations and facilities.

seized in a three-hour battle. The magazine said the action was important because the Heights dominated the Shabaa Road to the east, and five Israeli settlements to the west. ISRAELIS’ PICTURE The Israelis have acknowledged some sporadic rocket and shelling attacks by the guerrillas, but have dismissed them as insignificant. One Israeli communique said the guerrillas fired rockets at an Israeli settlement and missed. In addition to fighting inside Israel, “Assayad” said, the guerrillas were active on the Golan Heights, in the Sinai, on the Jordanian border and the Lebanese border. The Lebanese Government, which has expressed a strong desire to stay out of the conflict, denies the commandos have used Lebanon as a base for attacks against Israel, despite conflicting claims by guerrillas and Israel. SINAI CAMPAIGN “Assayad” also said three days before the outbreak of fighting, a commando unit went to Egypt and took part in the Sinai fighting, “carrying out operations ahead of the advancing army, as well as other operations behind enemy lines on the Egyptian front.”

A Beirut newspaper has reported that 26,000 commandos have joined the battle, but observers say this is an exaggeration. About 7000 of the guerrillas are said to be members of Al Fatah. Another 5000 are said to be from the Syrian-controlled Saiqa Brigade, and another 3000 from other groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Maoist Popular Democratic Front.

Their communiques have reported clashes with Israeli forces near the Metullah settlement in northern Israel, the capture of two unidentified Israeli kibbutzim in the Golan Heights, a rocket attack on the Nahariya settlement in Golan, an attack on an unidentified radar site, and a rocket attack on an Israeli military convoy on the Malkiya - Manara road in which Israel suffered heavy losses. The Beirut magazine, “Assayad,” said the guerrillas’'main achievement has been the occupation of the “Ruus Heights,” south of Mount Hermon, which were

A comment by Zoheir Mohsen, the Saiqa leader, underscored the exuberance apparently felt by the guerrillas in finally returning to action.

He told a group of reporters “it was Saiqa forces who carried out the Vienna operation. I am announcing this now because the precautions for not doing so have ended. The Arabs, for the first time, are waging a real war against the enemy.” The “Vienna operation” was last month’s seizure of

The magazine said the guerrillas had entered Jordan for the first time since the civil war fighting of 1970, and 1971, when they were driven out by King Hussein.