Israeli forces, supported by helicopter-borne paratroopers, killed 13 heavily armed El Fatah marauders in a short, fierce battle in the barren hills north of Jericho today. Three Israeli soldiers were reported to have been hit in the battle, according to an account given by another soldier to newsmen on the scene. The action brought to 19 the number of El Fatah saboteurs killed by Israeli forces since last Thursday night. One El Fatah man was wounded and captured in today’s action.
A military spokesman announced today that two Israeli soldiers were wounded yesterday morning when Egyptian forces opened fire from the west bank of the Suez Canal. (Lt. Gen. Odd Bull, chief of the United Nations cease-fire observer corps in the Middle East, reported to the Security Council yesterday that Israel had “breached” the cease fire several times that day in the Suez Canal area. He alleged that in each case Israeli troops had opened fire.)
Jordanian troops shot twice yesterday morning against Israeli units in the Beisan and Jordan valleys. The fire was returned but no casualties were reported. A military spokesman said the Jordanians first fired at an Israeli patrol in the Beisan area and shortly afterwards fired on Israeli units near the Damiyah Bridge.
The battle today, developed when an Israeli patrol spotted the band. Although outnumbered, the Israelis gave pursuit and had the saboteurs surrounded by the time helicopter re-enforcements arrived. Newsmen saw the bodies of 13 marauders sprawled in a dry river bed. They also saw large quantities of arms, ammunition and explosives, including Kalachnikoff assault rifles, hand grenades and 12 home-made bazookas. This booty and the large quantity of food the marauders carried indicated that they were on an extended sabotage mission and did not or could not depend on the local Arab population. Their kits contained Bulgarian canned food and Russian-made headache pills. Documents found on the dead indicated that they had come from the main terrorist base at Karameh in Jordan.
Last Thursday night, an Israeli patrol intercepted a group of six saboteurs near Eilat and killed all of them in a clash near Beer Orah, the site where a school bus hit a mine last March.
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