No let-up in Lebanon

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 15

No let-up in Lebanon

I «.V Z.P.A -Reuter —Copyrightj ! BEIRUT. April 16. Left and Right-wing ■ gunmen battled fiercely in many parts of Beirut last night as Lebanon’s latest so-called cease-fire went into its fifteenth day. Despite the announcement of yet another agreement to stop the killing, shell-bursts and machine-gunfire tore throub’ B rut's museum district, a key point between the Christian and Moslem halves of the city. Left a> Right-wingers also fought in the mountains outside the capital and in the north of he country. More than 100 bodies were found yesterd. . and about the same number were wounded. True to form, the factions accused each other of keeping up the war, while they’ tried to patch up disputes among their own ranks. On the Left wing, PalesItinian commandos and vari- ■ ous Lebanese factions tried |to narrow their differences

'with ria. which ha* sent [thousands of troops into the country in an effort to end [the crisis ' On the Maronite Christian Right wing, President Suleiman Fra j ; eh. whose resignation is demanded by the [Left, will cont nue talks .today with his political I allies in an effort to agree on whom they shou'd put forward as the next Head of State. In Washington, the United States ec ry of State (Dr Het. Kissinger) said that the Syrian military intervention was getting close to going bevond what the United States and Israel considered tolerable. But Dr Kissinge, stressed that Israel and the United States had agreed that the Syrian action was not a threat to Israel. The Secretary of State told a Senate budget subcommittee that the Syrian operations were limited to the bolder region, and it was believed that the number of troops involved was well below the 15,000 put forward by the Left wing in Lebanon.