Clashes over Mt Hermon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33517, 24 April 1974, Page 13

Clashes over Mt Hermon

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) CHABAA (Lebanon), April 23. Fighting today continued on the snow-covered slopes of Mount Hermon, where Lebanese troops drove back Israelis who had entered their territory.

Tank and artillery battles between Israelis and Syrians broke out today along the 40-mile Golan Heights front, where the two sides have been fighting for six weeks, a Syrian military spokesman said.

Informed sources said Lebanese troops yesterday drove back an Israeli patrol which had crossed into Lebanese territory on the western foothills of Mount Hermon. The mountain commands the approaches to Damascus and provides deep views into Lebanon and Syria.

The Israeli armoured cars tried to enter the village of Chabaa, but were forced back by mortar fire from the Lebanese Army. The Lebanese have put up new fortifications at the southern entrance to the village, and several Israeli half-tracked vehicles took up positions in the hills nearby.

Some Israeli armoured cars today drove up a dirt road to the Zaruka Hill on the western side of Mount Hermon, near the village, but came under Syrian shellfire and were forced to withdraw.

Later, two Israeli fighterbombers swooped low over! the eastern side of the mountain

A Syrian ground-to-air missile followed them, but neither plane was hit, and they returned to Israel Several United Nations observers accompanied by Lebanese officers arrived in Chabaa yesterday, and scanned the hills east of the

jvillage, where the Israelis 'had taken up positions. Beirut newspapers said Israeli troop., had opened machine-gun fire yesterday morning on traffic entering Chabaa. The windscreen of one car with six passengers had been hit but no-one was hurt, they said. The pro-Syrian newspaper “Ash-Sharq” said the Israeli firing was clearly intended ito terrorise local inhabitants. ' In Damascus, a Syrian military spokesman said the Syrians had shelled Israeli anti-aircraft-missile batteries which had moved up to the front during the night. Fighting for control of Mount Hermon's three peaks has been raging for 12 days. Eyewitnesses in southern Lebanon said the Israelis and Syrians had cut new roads on Mount Hermon to improve their positions.