Israel Air Force jets raided Arab guerrilla bases in Jordan today for the second consecutive day. A military spokesman said the target was an El Fatah base at Bir el-Harir in southern Jordan. The action lasted a half hour. All planes returned safely to their bases. Yesterday Israeli planes struck an El Fatah base near the village of Rafila, 20 miles southeast of the Dead Sea.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three were wounded, one seriously, in a 12-hour artillery duel across the Suez Canal yesterday. A military spokesman said the shelling was centered in the Qantara area along the northern section of the waterway but fire was also exchanged around Ismailia at the canal’s midpoint.
Egypt claimed that a number of Israeli shells hit the suburbs of Port Said, a city at the Mediterranean entrance to the canal which is an anchorage for several Soviet vessels. The Cairo report said there were no casualties, indicating that parts of Port Said may have been evacuated. Israeli sources denied an Egyptian claim that an Israeli observation plane had been forced down in the Port Said area. A military spokesman said Israeli artillery scored direct hits on Egyptian positions north of Qantara.
Five Arab saboteurs were killed and six were captured yesterday in clashes with Israeli patrols in the Araba district south of the Dead Sea and near Umm Tutz in the Jordan Valley. Large quantities of weapons, explosives and demolition material were captured.
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