PLO Officials Claim Credit for Katyusha Attack in Lebanon

Palestine Liberation Organization sources in southern Lebanon have said an intense hail of Katyusha rockets on the Israeli-patrolled security zone Monday night was fired on orders of PLO chief Yasir Arafat and was part of a “second front” in support of Saddam Hussein.

But the PLO leadership in Tunis later denied that Arafat personally ordered the assault as a response to allied attacks on Iraq.

The attack, described by the Israel Defense Force as the most intense bombardment in recent years, was apparently aimed at settlements in northern Israel. The rockets fell far short of their targets and exploded harmlessly, causing neither casualties nor damage, the IDF said.

Witnesses in Lebanon reportedly saw Palestinians put up rocket launchers just north of the southern Lebanon zone patrolled by IDF troops and the allied South Lebanon Army.

PLO officials in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon took credit for the attack, in what may be the first such acknowledgment since Arafat publicly renounced terrorism in November 1988 and said he recognized Israel’s right to exist.

Arafat has been supportive of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf war and supports linking the Gulf crisis and the Palestinian-Israel problem.

PLO officials said the rockets were fired on Arafat’s personal orders to demonstrate solidarity with Hussein.

In the Ain-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, a man who called himself “commander of the PLO aerial defense force” said Monday night’s barrage was preliminary to opening a “second front” in support of Hussein.

He said Palestinian pilots underwent special training in Lebanon for this “second front.”

Israeli artillery responded to the salvo of dozens of rockets while Palestinian and Hezbollah centers in southern Lebanon declared a state of emergency in expectation of retaliatory attacks.

The Hezbollah, or Party of God, is an extremist Islamic group active in southern Lebanon.