Israel Air Force Jets attacked a combined El Fatah training base and PLO headquarters south of Beirut this afternoon and returned safely to their bases, a military spokesman announced. He said the planes scored direct hits on the targets which were isolated from inhabited areas. According to reports from Beirut air raid warnings sounded in the Lebanese capital and telephone communications were ruptured south of the city.
The air attack lasted a quarter hour, the military spokesman said. He described the target as a large construction in a plantation area far removed from the nearest refugee camps in Zabra, a suburb of Beirut, thereby refuting a Beirut report that a refugee camp had been bombed.
According to the spokesman, Israeli pilots said the target was defended by Soviet-made portable ground-to-air missiles of the “Strella” or SAM-7 type which are fired from a shoulder launcher. The pilots reported that despite a low cloud cover, direct hits were scored and the targets were engulfed in smoke and flames.
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