State Department Offers Mild Criticism of PLO Attack on Unifil

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s attack yesterday, with Soviet weapons, on elements of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), was mildly criticized today by the State Department which had taken a harsh line against the Christian forces in south Lebanon last summer for firing on UN troops.

Asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for comment, the Department’s chief spokesman, John Trattner, replied, “We don’t like interference, much less firing, on UNIFIL.” James Holger, political advisor to UNIFIL Commander Lt. Gen. Emanuel Erskine, said the PLO fired 46 rounds, including 26 Soviet-made Katyusha racket shells, at Norwegian and Ghanaian UNIFIL battalions in south Lebanon. He said there were no casualties and that the UNIFIL command had protested to PLO headquarters in Beirut.

Last summer, after Maj. Saad Haddad’s Christian forces, which are supported by Israel, fired on UNIFIL troops, the State Department branded Haddad’s militia as “brigands” and used some of the bitterest language publicly heard at the State “Department since the Viet Nam war.

When the JTA asked Trattner today if he would use the same language about the PLO, he refused; saying that the State Department would be “taking sides” if it did.

Asked about the Syrian attack on two Lebanese villages in the area controlled by Haddad’s forces and the Syrian battering of the Christian-dominated town of Zahli, Trattner said “We have a humanitarian concern for civilians in the area.” Asked if he would condemn Syria, Trattner replied that the State Department “opposes violence in Lebanon from any source.” He said, “I won’t make a specific condemnation to satisfy this side or the other.”