Israeli Planes Destroy Syrian Missiles After 3 Israeli Soldiers Are Killed and One is Wounded

Israeli aircraft today destroyed another SAM-9 Syrian missile battery at the same spot where two others were bombed and destroyed last week. According to an army spokesman, the missile battery and launcher destroyed today was in the same area as those destroyed on Wednesday and Thursday some six miles east of Bhamdoun on the Beirut Damascus highway. All planes returned safely to their base, the spokesman said.

Today’s raid on the Syrian missile battery in the Bekao valley came shortly after an army spokesman announced that three soldiers were killed and one wounded Friday evening when a bazooka rocket was fired at the vehicle in which they were travelling north of Amik in eastern Lebanon.

The spokesman said that small arms and rocket fire were directed at an Israel Defense Force position in the some sector Saturday morning but no casualties were reported. He emphasized that Israel views with grave urgency ceasefire violations in this area.

ISRAEL WARNS SYRIA

Israel issued a stern warning to Syria today to half violations of the cease-fire originating in the Syrian-held area of eastern Lebanon. Cabinet Secretary Dan. Meridor said Israel held Syria fully responsible for these actions which have multiplied in recent weeks. He said if the Syrians wanted to stop the Palestine Liberation Organization’s activities it could do so, as it has done on the Golan Heights for many years.

Cabinet sources warned that the situation between Israeli and Syrian troops facing each other in Lebanon was “deteriorating sharply.” They said Israel would not allow a “war of attrition to develop.” The sources said the warnings to Syria were relayed through the U.S. and other channels but so far have had no effect.

SYRIANS BUILDING FORTIFICATIONS

Meanwhile, Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan said this weekend that the Syrians were building new defensive fortifications in Lebanon although he did not think the Syrians had bolstered their positions there. In on Israel Army radio interview, Eitan said he did not think tensions would rise as a result of the destruction of newly introduced SAM-9 missiles into the Bekao valley, adding: “But who knows.” He said the region, with its forested hills, was an ideal area for terrorist operations.

Eitan said the army had begun to redeploy in the Beirut area, pulling troops back from the city proper. But he added that the IDF would have to remain “close to the city until we are sure that its unity is restored and that there is no danger of the terrorist organizations sprouting up again.”

With the departure of the U.S. Marines from Beirut last Friday–three weeks after their arrival and well within the 30-day stay promised by President Reagan–and of the Italian contingent on Saturday, only the 850 troops of the French contingent of the multinational force now remain in Beirut. The French are to depart this week, though the Lebanese government is reported to have expressed on interest in them staying on for some time longer.

Meanwhile, fighting broke out today in central Beirut as leftwing gunmen clashed with the Lebanese regular army. Security forces identified the gunmen as members of the “Partisans of the Revolution.” According to reports from Beirut, the leftists fired at a Moslem delegation leaving west Beirut to pay their respects to Gemayel.

At the same time, Nayef Hawatmeh, leader of the pro-Soviet Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was quoted by the authoritative Beirut newspaper An Nahar as saying that the PLO will keep on using Lebanon as a springboard for attacks on Israeli forces. Hawatmeh, who was among the terrorists evacuated from Beirut, was also quoted as saying that the north of Lebanon, which he reentered last week for a visit, and the Bekao valley “will be firm starting points from which to push back the Israeli occupation.”