Former President vows war after son is killed in attack

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 8

Former President vows war after son is killed in attack

NZPA Beirut The former President of Lebanon, Mr Suleiman Franjieh, has promised war to avenge the killing of his son during bloody fighting between clashing rival : Christian factions in northern Lebanon.

The police said that at least 57 others were killed in the clashes and scores wounded. The battle erupted as Israel began withdrawing the last of its invasion force from southern Lebanon. Mr Franjieh’s son was a member of Parliament and former Cabinet Minister. The younger Franjieh’s wife and three-year-old daughter were also killed. The clash between 800 Falange Party militiamen and units of Mr Franjieh’s Giants Brigade — allies in the Lebanese civil war — was the worst inter-Christian explosion sine. a Syriandominated Arab peace force ■■ crushed the national rebel- s lion 19 months ago. A police spokesman in ' Beirut said that Falangists I attacked the town of Ehden, i a Franjieh mountain strong- s hold 112 kms north of the I Lebanese capital. The attack apparently stemmed from a I dispute over recent Syrian < curbs on Christian military t activity in Beirut. i Syrian troops, rushed to! the scene at the request of 1 the Lebanese President (Mr I Elias Sarkis), smashed the 1 Falangist occupation, and i scattered the invaders into

a nearby cedar forest, the spokesman said. In the south, Israel’s withdrawal has left a ques-tion-mark hanging over the role of United Nations soldiers intended to police the area. The withdrawing Israeli troops on Tuesday handed over a string of border positions to the Right-wing militia forces which were beseiged in a border enclave by Palestinian guerrillas and their Leftist Lebanese allies before Israel’s invasion three months ago. Major-General Emmanuel

Erskine, commander of the United Nations force, said he was co-operating with the Rightist militias because the Lebanese Government had told him they represented its authority in the area. But a Government spokesman in Beirut described the general’s statement as “strictly unfounded.” Bashir Gemayel, over-all chief of Rightist militias in Lebanon, hinted that the United Nations troops might not be allowed into sensitive border areas. The mainly Christian Rightist force, estimated to total between 700 and 800 men, is led by Major Saad , Haddad, a Lebanese officer who acts independently of the Army command to which he , is nominally responsible. Major Haddad expressed hope that the United Nations could keep south Lebanon free of Palestinian guerrillas — “otherwise we hope the Israeli forces will intervene again.” Already the Israeli Foreign Minister (Mr Moshe Dayan) has protested to the United Nations force in Lebanon because, he said, it had allowed Palestinian guerrillas to enter areas evacuated by the Israeli Army.