Attacks on IDF Have Increased in South Lebanon Since Prisoners Were Released from the Ansar Camp

Israeli paratroopers have been put in charge of security in Sidon, south Lebanon, where military sources report a sharp rise in the number of attacks on Israeli personnel and vehicles since the release of some 3,500 prisoners from the Ansar detention camp earlier this month. About 800 of them remained in Sidon.

Over, the weekend, one Israeli soldier was killed, seven were injured, and three terrorists were killed.

A 29-year-old border police officer was killed and one of his men was injured last night when their patrol run into a small group of terrorists preparing to lay an explosive charge in the eastern suburb of Sidon. In the ensuing fight between the Israeli patrol and the terrorist gang three of the terrorists were killed. Large quantities of explosives were found at the scene.

In another incident, three Israeli soldiers were injured when their jeep convoy came under light arms fire near the village of Karoun in the eastern sector facing the Syrian forces, an area which has been relatively quiet in recent months. In a third incident yesterday, a soldier was slightly wounded when two grenades were thrown at a patrol of armored personnel carriers near Nabatiya, just south of the Israeli border.

On Sunday, two Israeli soldiers were wounded while on patrol in Sidon. One was given first aid and resumed his duties but the other soldier was flown to a hospital in Israel for treatment. A local civilian was also wounded. An explosion rocked Sidon last Friday, but there were no reported injuries.

The release of detainees from the Ansar camp was part of a prisoner-of-war exchange involving a total of 4,600 Palestinians and Lebanese held by Israel in Lebanon and in Israeli jails, in return, the Palestine Liberation Organization released six Israeli soldiers they had held since September, 1982. Many of the Palestinians freed were serving sentences for terrorist acts.