Israel Air Force jets attacked terrorist targets in Lebanon south of Beirut Tuesday and returned safely to their bases, a military spokesman said. He said all the bases hit were on mountain tops, away from populated areas. They reportedly included headquarters and staging areas of the Popular Front organization and buildings that housed a unit of the Abu Musa faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Beirut Radio reported Tuesday that the targets were near Baissour, Aidat, Khaifun, Shimlan and Aramon and that the attacks left them ablaze.
There was apparently no direct connection between the air raids and recent attacks in south Lebanon on the French contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA). (See separate story from the United Nations.)
Security sources in Sidon said Tuesday that many villagers north of the south Lebanon security zone were fleeing the area following heavy artillery bombardments by the SLA Monday night. The shelling continued Tuesday morning, aimed at several villages northeast of Nabatiya.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin visited SLA positions in south Lebanon Tuesday. He said the responsibility for the recent attacks on the SLA by the extremist Shiite Moslem Hezbullah rested more with Iran than with Syria.
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