Israel’s sea-borne commando raid Friday on the terrorist training base at Ros el-Shaq in south Lebanon was praised by Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eytan today as “text book perfect.” Initial reports by an Israeli army spokesman said 6-8 terrorists were killed and two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded in the raid which took the terrorists completely by surprise.
Reports from Lebanese sources today said that at least 20 terrorists were killed, all of them members of Ahmed Jibril’s Radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Ras el-Shaq training base is located near the Lebanese coast about 15 miles north of Tyre and 30 miles from the Israeli border.
The Israeli raid was the first direct assault on a terrorist base since the April 7 terrorist attack on Kibbutz Misgav Am in Upper Galilee where three Israelis and five terrorists were killed. On April 9, an Israeli armored force occupied an area in south Lebanon through which the Misgav Am attackers were known to have passed but no contact with terrorists was reported. The Israeli unit withdrew after three days.
Friday’s attack was apparently timed to take place after Premier Menachem Begin’s departure from Washington so that it would not complicate his talks with President Carter on the autonomy negotiations. The said was personally directed by Defense Minister Ezer Weizman from the War Room at General Headquarters. It was also apparently intended as a response to criticism in some military and political circles that the army was being prevented for political reasons from taking the offensive against terrorists in south Lebanon.
According to Eytan, the terrorists were taken completely by surprise in the pre-down raid. They had not expected the Israelis to come by sea because that route required them to cross dense thickets and groves which form a natural barrier around the terrorist base.
Eytan reported that the Israeli force killed 6-8 guards as they emerged from the undergrowth and demolished two buildings in which terrorists were quartered. The Israeli press published Israel photographs today showing the Ros el-Shaq base before and after the buildings were leveled.
Israeli sources estimate that there are between 1500-2000 terrorists in the area of Lebanon between the Litani and Zahoroni rivers. They belong to almost the entire spectrum of terrorist groups ranging from El Fatah, the terrorist arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to the Syrian-sponsored Al Saiqa and Jibril’s radicals.
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