Airman swap suggested

Press, 20 October 1986, Page 8

Airman swap suggested

NZPA-Reuter Beirut A captured Israeli airman should be exchanged for prisoners held by Israel, says the mainstream Shi’ite Muslim militia, Amal. The Amal leader, Nabih Berri, said in Damascus yesterday: “If reports that he is in the hands of the Amal militia are true, then for sure he should be swapped through international circles for all Lebanese and Palestinian captives held by Israeli authorities.”

Mr Berri, who has been away from Lebanon for several days, did not confirm that the airman,

whose F 4 Phantom jet was shot down during a raid near the south Lebanese port of Sidon on Thursday, was held by Amal. But sources close to Amal in Sidon said yesterday that the airman had been smuggled to the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon, as a precaution against any Israeli attempt to rescue him.

Israel’s Defence Ministry co-ordinator for Lebanon, Uri Lubrani, said on Saturday that Israel would leave no stone unturned in its search for the missing

airman. “Israel demands that Amal return the captive immediately,” he told Israel radio. • In Beirut, shells exploded near the Presidential palace in the Christian suburb of Baabda yesterday as heavy artillery exchanges flared across the capital’s battlefront between Christians and Muslims. Official sources said the palace was not directly hit by the Beirut artillery duel. They did not say whether the Christian President, Amin Gemayel, was there at the time. Amal sources said mili-

tia gunners bombarded the palace in retaliation for Christian shelling of the Shi’ite southern suburbs which wounded 15 people. In south Lebanon, three Israeli gunboats came within 2km of the port of Tyre and traded heavy machine-gun fire with Amal militiamen on the seafront, security sources said.

The gunboats were hit with machine-gun fire and raked the city’s corniche in reply. Tyre residents, -■ who huddled in corridors, said an Israeli helicopter flew low over the city.