Beirut shaken by battles between Iran, Iraq foes

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 6

Beirut shaken by battles between Iran, Iraq foes

NZPA-Reuter Beirut At least 10 people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in fierce street battles between rival Lebanese supporters of Iraq and Iran. Militants of the pro-Ira-nian Shi’ite Muslim militia exchanged heavy rocketgrenade and machine-gun fire with pro-Iraqi gunmen. The fighting spread from the populous southern district of Bourj Brajneh to the Iraqi Embassy on Befo rut’s seafront. The fighting, the worst in the Lebanese capital for several months, was finally quelled by the intervention of troops from the 30,000strong Syrian peace-keeping force. However, after midnight, sporadic explosions and bursts of machine-gun fire could still be heard in the predominantly Muslim western sector of Beirut. . Relations between Iran and Iraq have deteriorated since the Islamic revolution which brought the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny . to

power in Iran. There have been several clashes along! their long mutual frontier. Beirut’s English-language!:' newspaper described thql clashes as an Iraqi-Iranian war by proxy and said thatj! th?. fighting was only “the first shipment of Iranian* Iraqi hospitality;” Earlier, a powerful bomb| exploded in the south-west-; em Iranian refinery town of Abadan, killing three people and injuring 24, the official Pars news agency reported. . Pars said the'blast was so) powerful that a car and two: motor-cycles were destroyed and several shops were dami aged. . Iranian towns in. the oil-, rich province of KhuzestanJ have been the targets fotf sabotage since the over* throw of the Shah. The Ira* nian authorities have ac* cused the Iraqi Government’ of helping and financing saboteurs in the region.

The Iranian Foreign Minis’ ter (Mr Sadeq Qotbzadeh) said yesterday that Iran and Iraq could never be friends until the Bagdad Government was overthrown. ~