Falangists advance

Press, 13 July 1976, Page 8

Falangists advance

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Palestinian defenders of the strategic Tel Al-Zaatar camp said last night that they had killed or wounded 100 while beating back a determined assault by their Rightist besiegers. The Right-wing Falangist radio said that Rightist forces had taken "the last defence position” of the camp situated on the hillside shanty town near Beirut, but did not state specifically that the whole camp was in Rightist hands. In Cairo, the Palestinian leader (Mr Yasser Arafat) sent an urgent appeal for Egyptian help in Lebanon, saying the situation of the Leftist Alliance, was increasingly serious. Mr Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, said in his plea

to the Egyptian Parliament: “The situation is increasingly serious and is far worse than all imagination.” He said: “There is a deterioration . . . We await a quick initiative from you.” Mr Arafat, who asked for fuel supplies to be sent to his forces, made his appeal before the scheduled meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers on the Lebanon civil war. He said it would be “too late” if Egypt waited for the league meeting to take place before acting. The Arab Foreign Ministers are meeting to hear a report on their so far unsuccessful efforts by the three-man league mediation mission, headed by its SecretaryGeneral (Mr Mahmoud Riad).

The meeting takes place against a background of relentless pressure on the

Leftists and Palestinians by the Lebanese Rightists fighting in the north of the country and around the besieged refugee camp of Tel AlZaatar on Beirut’s outskirts. Mr Arafat said, “We are between the jaws of a real pincer . . . the pincer has more than one head. After Syria shelled the Zahrani oil refinery, , petrol and diesel have run out and the tanks were destroyed.” If Egypt were to respond to Mr Arafat’s plea it would be flying in the face of Syria, which has studiously avoided opposing the Right wing. On the battle front away from Beirut, Rightist forces continued their northward offensive through the Koura district, and were only a few kilometres south of the Leftist stronghold of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second city.