107 now dead in Lebanon

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33858, 2 June 1975, Page 13

107 now dead in Lebanon

(Net*' Zealand Press Association —Copyright) BEIRUT. June I. Fighting in strife-torn I .cbanon has claimed more victims as the country’s political crisis remains unresolv ed.

The death toll in 12 'days of violence between Right - wing Phalangists and supporters of the Palestinians now stands at 107 with scores of iothers wounded.

The fighting spread outside the capital yesterday and three people were killed on the coastal road to the southern port of Sidon. The road, blocked on Thursday, was reopened by authorities yesterday.

In Beirut, the offices of American I.T.T. (international Telephone and Telegraphy Company were damaged ii an explosion, and the bodie| of four people shot dead by snipers were found in th# streets. The underground Arab Communist organist ation claimed responsibility for the blast. Meanwhile, the veteran politician. Mr Rashid Karami, asked to form a new govern* ment five days ago after the resignation of the military government, had today still not assembled a team accept* able to all parties. Mr Karanti, seven times a Prime Minister, is seeking to put together a government of national unity. The main obstacle he must overcome is a demand from the Left for the exclusion of the Phalangists. Political sources say that the socialist leader, Mr Kamal Jumblatt, who blames tha Phalangists for provoking the latest round of fighting, is insistent that they should be excluded from a new government. But die Phalangist leader. Pierre Gemayel, has rejected suggestions that his party, Lebanon’s largest, should bi left out in the cold.