Tit-for-tat abductions net 40 in Beirut

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 6

Tit-for-tat abductions net 40 in Beirut

NZPA-AP Beirut Forty Christians and Muslims, are missing after a recent spate of sectarian abductions by rival militias, the police reported. The uncertain fate of the kidnap victims raised tensions in Beirut, although the civil war rivals’ big guns fell silent yesterday. Christian and Muslim militias, however, traded sniper fire across the Green Line. Sporadic rocket-propelled grenade exchanges were reported. Meanwhile Israeli troops, tanks, and gunships raided three Shi’ite Muslim villages in southern Lebanon yesterday, and a Syrianbacked group claimed a suicide car bomber killed or wounded 60 people at a

Christian militia base. United Nations officials and Lebanese police said that the Israeli sweep was the largest such action since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in June.

Israeli military command in Tel Aviv said the raids were to round up suspected guerrillas and to prevent attacks on northern Israeli settlements.

The Syrian-supported Arab Baath Socialist Party announced it staged the carbombing, sending a BMW sedan loaded with T.N.T. crashing into a checkpoint at a base of the South Lebanon Army near the village of Barti, 14km east of the southern city of Sidon. The Army, which is largely Christian, is armed and financed by Israel.

The Baath Party said that the blast caused 60 casualties, but gave no breakdown of the number of dead and wounded.

A report by Israel’s Army radio said one Christian militiaman was killed and two were wounded in the blast. Lebanon’s State television reported an explosion that “killed or wounded” 30 people. It was the third suicide bombing carried out by Baathists at checkpoints of the Israelis or their Lebanese allies in the south.

Lebanese police said the car bombing triggered clashes between the South Lebanese Army and the Popular Liberation Army, an alliance of Muslim militias and Leftist factions.