Syria-Israel clash nears after deaths

Press, 23 April 1983, Page 10

Syria-Israel clash nears after deaths

NZPA Jerusalem Two Israelis and four Arabs have died in the latest clash along the SyrianIsraeli front-line, amid growing fears of an imminent full-scale conflict. The Israeli Military Command reporting the deaths, said that Israeli troops intercepted the four Arab guerrillas trying to infiltrate Israeli lines south of Sofar near the BeirutDamascus Highway on Wednesday. It did not say if the guerrillas were Syrians or Palestinians. The incident coincided with news reports citing increasing Syrian activity in Lebanon, a big Soviet rearmament of Syria, offensive. The reports originated from a background briefing to Israeli military correspondents by the Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Moshe Arens,, just before the latest clash. -

The reports said that it was not clear whether the Syrians were preparing a (northern) spring campaign or were adopting a defensive posture for fear of an Israeli attack. But in a clear signal to Damascus, the reports em-

phasised that Israel had no intention to launch an attack, and was deliberately avoiding measures that could be read by Syria as a provocation. Some analysts say that the war scare could be aimed at undermining talks by the United States, Israel and Lebanon on the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon. Meanwhile, in Syria, state-run Damascus radio has accused Israel of staging provocative military exercises on the Golan Heights and said that an Israeli attack on Syria was imminent. The exercises this week coincided with Israel’s reinforcing of its troops in the Bekaa Valley of east Lebanon, where they confront Syrian forces. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and annexed them in 1981.