Heavy fighting continued on the Syrian front today despite unconfirmed reports from Damascus that the Syrians had agreed to a cease-fire in the entire Golan Heights section except for the Mt. Hermon area. The reports came during U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s visit to Damascus yesterday.
A military spokesman reported at noon today that the Syrians were directing artillery and tank fire and Katyusha rocket salvoes at Israeli positions in the southern sector of the Yom Kippur War enclave and the southern Golan Heights. Israeli forces returned the fire. No casualties were reported today on the Israeli side.
Bazooka rockets and automatic fire struck Metullah settlement last night without causing casualties or damage. The bursts came from Hamanis. a hill in Lebanese territory east of Metullah. Israeli artillery fired on the hill and into the “Fatahland” section of southeastern Lebanon. Golan Heights settlers spent most of yesterday in bomb shelters as a result of Syrian artillery fire.
Six Israeli soldiers were wounded by Syrian artillery fire Friday morning and afternoon. Ten sustained injuries when their patrol entered a minefield. They were extricated by an armored troop carrier and flown to a hospital by helicopter. Israeli artillery shelled Syrian targets on Friday, well behind the front lines. Yesterday the Syrians shelled the southern section of the Golan Heights and the Har Dov region west of Mt. Hermon, and terrorist areas in “Fatahland” were hit by Israeli fire.
Israeli Chief of Staff, Gen. Mordechai Gur said on a visit to the northern front Friday that the fighting as a whole was not escalating despite the intensity of Syrian artillery barrages and the extended range of the shooting. He said the only new developments were political ones. referring to Secretary Kissinger’s visit to the region.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
