Israel Defense Force aircraft today carried out a bombing raid on three Palestinian terrorist bases near the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli. Accurate hits were reported and all Israeli planes returned safely to their base, according to an IDF spokesman.
Beirut Radio reported large fires blazing in the targeted areas, with many casualties. The Lebanese reports linked the mid-afternoon air attacks to yesterday’s car-bomb attacks in the south Lebanon security zone which killed 10 Lebanese civilians and two soldiers of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA). Two IDF soldiers were also wounded in the suicide car bombing attacks.
Suicide drivers of bomb-laden vehicles have till now all been Shiite Moslems while the members of the terrorist organizations whose bases were raided today are usually Palestinians. There has been, however, an increase in recent weeks in the number of terrorist attempts inside Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The targets of today’s raids were described by the IDF spokesman as two terrorist bases near Nahr El Baida, some nine kilometers northeast of Tripoli, occupied by the faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Abu Mussa.
The target, consisting of a series of one story structures, housed the headquarters of the Abu Mussa faction and served as the staging point for its members going on terrorist raids. The other target, two kilometers northeast of Tripoli, was described as a base for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, led by Ahmed Jibril.
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