Suicide-bomber kills Israelis

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 10

Suicide-bomber kills Israelis

NZPA-Reuter Tel Aviv A suicide car-bomber has killed 12 Israeli soldiers and wounded 14 just across the Lebanese border in the most lethal attack against Israeli forces since the start of their withdrawal from south Lebanon. Islamic Jihad and two other Islamic groups claimed responsibility for yesterday’s powerful explosion just metres from the Israeli border town of Metullah. It was the worst guerrilla attack against Israeli forces in Lebanon since they completed the first phase of a three-stage pull-out last month. Only the suicide carbombing of Israeli military headquarters in Tyre in November, 1983, in which 29 Israelis died, has claimed more Israeli casualties. The military said that the blast on Israel’s doorstep

killed 12 soldiers and wounded 14. It occurred two days after a car-bomb killed at least 66 people near the home of a Shi’ite Muslim clergyman in west Beirut. The Shi’ite Amal movement, locked in a guerrilla war with Israeli occupation forces in the south, blamed Israel for the Beirut explosion and vowed revenge. Israel denied any part. The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, expressed shock at the attack and vowed to hit hard at guerrillas in south Lebanon. The Centrist Shinui Party, which has three seats in Parliament and is a member of the coalition Government, called for an immediate pull-out from Lebanon. A Labour Party deputy, Abba Eban, said the Israeli people were tired of the Army’s continued presence north of the border. Wounded soldiers said

that the driver of a Lebanese pick-up truck blew up himself and the vehicle as an open-sided “Safari” troop transport truck passed by on a road leading to a border check-post. Military sources said the vehicle contained 100 kg of explosives. The attack flouted Israel’s iron-fist policy in the area and anti-guerrilla raids on Shi’ite villages. Critics have predicted that the crack-down would only intensify anti-Israeli hatred among its neighbours in the north. Israeli military officers have said they expected to pull the Army out of eastern Lebanon, completing the second stage of the withdrawal, in 12 weeks. No date has been set for the final pull-back to the international border. © Israeli helicopters fired machine-guns at civilians

crossing the Israeli frontline beside roads north of Tyre yesterday, wounding two, security forces said. Israeli tanks simultaneously fired eight shells into orchards and orange groves in the same area north of the Qasmiyeh bridge, the sources said. No casualties were reported in that incident. Israeli bulldozers then pushed up earth barriers to seal off the side-roads, which have often been the only possible route for Lebanese travelling to and from Tyre since Israeli troops withdrew from Sidon last month. Residents of Tyre said that guerrillas had launched a rocket-propelled grenade at the local Israeli interrogation centre and that they had heard 10 loud explosions from another attack on an Israeli strong-point north of Tyre.