‘Palestinian’ ambush of U.N. force puts mission in jeopardy

Press, 4 May 1978, Page 8

‘Palestinian’ ambush of U.N. force puts mission in jeopardy

International

NZPA«Reuter

Beirut

Fighting erupted between United Nations troops and guerrillas in the south Lebanon port city of Tyre on Tuesday night, killing four French soldiers and injuring eight others, including their commanding officer.

After the attacks, which have have come in a week of rising tension between the United Nations base and Leftist Arab elements, a French contingent spokesman said: “Our mission is at stake this week.” At the United Nations, a spokesman said that the Secretary-General (Dr Kurt Waldheim) had ordered the over-all commander of the United Nations force, (Major-General Emmanuel Erskine), who was visiting New York, to return to his command immediately. Three soldiers died when their armoured car was destroyed in an ambush less than a kilometre from their barracks, reliable sources said. A fourth soldier was killed and six colleagues were wounded earlier in a half-hour battle at the barracks which came under fire from mortars and automatic weapons, according to a report sent to the United Nations in New York. The French commander, Colonel Jean-Germain Salvan, was injured when he went with a Palestine Liberation Organisation official to investigate an attack on another United Nations vehicle just north of Tyre, the report said. A soldier in the vehicle was injured. At one point Colonel Salvan was listed as missing, but a United Nations spokesman said he was in hospital and out of danger, although his jeep was riddled with bullets. There was no immediate indication whether the fighting involved Palestinian guerrillas or their Lebanese Leftist allies, but the United Nations report blamed “Palestinian elements.” Three Leftist gunmen were killed earlier this week in two clashes with the French troops. The United Nations command said its soldiers opened fire after armed men ignored warnings not to cross their lines towards Is-raeli-occupied territory further south. After the clashes a prev i o u s 1 y-unknown Leftist group threatened to use force if the United Nations tried to prevent its men fighting the Israelis. The group, the Popular Resistance Front for the Liberation of the South from Occupation and Fascism, said it would consider the United Nations soldiers as “enemy forces if they try to forbid our fighters from striking at Israeli invasion forces.” The United Nations Secur-

ity Council will meet today (N.Z. time) to consider Dr Waldheim’s recommendation to increase U.N.I.F.I.L’s authorised strength from 4000 to 6000 men. Earlier on Tuesday night, Palestinians clashed with an Arab peace-keeping force in Sidon, 38km north of Tyre and three people were injured. Palestinian sources said the fighting began after Syrian troops attached to the Arab League Deterrent Force tried to arrest a member of the radical Arab Liberation Front. President Anwar Sadat, of Egypt, has drawn cheers from 20,000 workers in a Cairo suburb when he said in a speech that he was ordering a Cabinet reshuffle. The Government, changes, which well-informed sources said would not affect either the Foreign or Defence Ministries, will come after expressions of public impatience with the Government’s conduct of domestic affairs. Mr Sadat praised President Carter for his Middle East peace efforts and called the United States leader a man of principle. But the Egyptian President accused the Israeli Prime Minister of being intransigent. Mr Sadat’s praise for Mr Carter came after United States assurances that Washington’s Middle East policy had not changed and that it considered Mr Begin’s home-rule plan for the Jordan West Bank and the Gaza Strip unsuitable. Mr Carter had been quoted in an interview as rejecting the creation of a Palestinian State and saying he believed a settlement would be based substantially on the Begin plan. In Washington, Carter Administration officials have reacted sceptically to a hint by the Israeli Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) of a possible breakthrough in Middle East peace talks. Mr Begin told reporters accompanying him to Los Angeles that “there may be a breakthrough” although he did not elaborate. But a report in the Tel Aviv newspaper. “Yediot Aharonot,” quoted him as saying there was now agreement with the United States about an Israeli military presence on the West Bank of the Jordan River, and that a proposed referendum of Palestinians had been dropped from the agenda of his United States talks. State Department officials said they were unaware of agreement on these points.