Terrorists Said to Be Suffering Heavy Casualties but Attacks Are Expected to Continue

Israeli military sources said today that El Fatah and other terrorist bands were suffering 80-90 percent casualties in their sorties against Israel but that guerrilla attacks from across the border were likely to continue even though the terrorists must realize they are futile. The sources said the casualty figures included guerrillas killed, wounded and captured. They said Israel’s new tactic of air strikes against terrorist bases created chaos at the organizational level which hampered large scale commando operations. The most recent strike was carried out yesterday when Israeli jet fighters blasted an El Fatah base near the village of Salt northwest of Amman.

A military spokesman said that the seven Katyusha rockets fired into Beisan township from across the Jordan River early today was regarded as a reprisal for the Salt raid. He said the rockets caused no casualties or damage. Marauders opened fire on a police border patrol near Tirat Zvi in the southern Beisan Valley today. The fire was returned without casualties on the Israeli side. Fifteen mortar shells were fired at an Israeli unit south of Kuneitra in the Golan Heights yesterday without inflicting casualties or damage. The shells came from across the Israel-Syrian cease-fire line, a military spokesman said, an area under control of the Syrian Army. It was the first incident there since six marauders were killed by an Israeli Army unit a month ago. A local policeman was injured yesterday when guerrillas fired on the police station at Kahn Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

A guerrilla organization warned in Amman today that it would strike at Israeli commercial aircraft and shipping. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed credit for attacks on El Al airliners in Athens and Zurich in recent months, warned “those tourists who use enemy airlines and ships” that they “will be objects of our attacks.”