Children pulled from rubble

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 8

Children pulled from rubble

NZPA-Reuter Beirut A two-year-old child, a nine-year-old boy, and an old man were pulled out alive on Monday from the rubble of the Palestinian headquarters in Beirut, destroyed by a dawn explosion on Sunday which killed about a hundred people. • The little boy, apparently unscathed, immediately asked for a drink, while the baby and old man, unconscious after 30 hours under the rubble, were rushed to hospital. I Rescuers hoped that there would be more survivors and said they could hear voices under the debris. Palestinian commando organisations have tightened security precautions after more than 100 people — including at least 22 children — died in the Beirut bomb blast.

The explosion levelled an eight-storey building housing the military command of the pro-Iraqi Palestine Liberation Front, which has been engaged in a violent dispute With mainstream guerrillas loyal to Yasser Arafat, leader of the Fatah organisation. Commandos on the scene estimated that 250 kg bf high explosive, placed at strategic points in the basement, had been used to blow up the building. Knowledgeable Palestinians were sceptical of for-

eign press reports hinting that the blast was the work of the pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command led by Ahme Jibril. The P.F.L.P.-G.C. split into pro-Syrian and pro-Iraqi factions in 1976 in disagreement over Syria’s involvement in the Lebanese civil war. The pro-Iraqi faction, led by Abdul Abbas, named itself the Palestine Liberation Front last year. Hi g h-ranking officials have scoffed at suggestions of Israeli involvement in the blast.

“It can only have been done by someone with intimate up-to date inside knowledge — someone able to move into and out of the area freely without arousing suspicion,” said a senior Palestinian official. “Fakhani is a well-guarded area. You can’t just go about there lugging explosives like so many sacks of flour.” Mr Arafat’s Palestinian guerrillas have claimed that they bombed a military bus station in Jerusalem killing or wounding several Israeli soldiers.

But an Israeli Army spokesman in Jerusalem, while confirming that there had been a blast, said the explosion had occurred at a hitchhikers’ pick-up spot and had caused no injuries or damage.