Israeli helicopter gunships attacked a target in southern Lebanon Thursday morning said to be linked to the most recent terrorist attempts to infiltrate Israel.
The attack came amid growing suspicion here that the attempts were aided by Amal, the mainstream Shiite militia in Lebanon, which may have begun to cooperate with Palestinian terrorist groups with whom it was at war until recently.
The infiltrators were identified by Israel as members of radical Palestinian groups that the FBI believes may have been linked to the bomb that destroyed a Pan American jumbo jet over Scotland Dec. 21.
The attack helicopters returned safely to their base. Their target was located in Sultiniya village near Tyre, a region outside the southern Lebanon security zone controlled by Israel.
Sources of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said two Cobra helicopters fired five missiles at local Amal headquarters. Eight Amal militiamen inside at the time were wounded and hospitalized, the UNIFIL sources said.
Amal, which has had various tacit understandings with Israel in the past, is distinct from Shiite extremist groups such as Hezbollah.
Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled, commander of the northern region, nevertheless is believed to have been referring to Amal when he said Wednesday that “we can’t tolerate a situation in which there are groups in south Lebanon helping Palestinian terror.”
Peled spoke to members of Kibbutz Manara in the Galilee panhandle close to the Lebanese border.
They were upset by the fact that two terrorist gangs trying to infiltrate Israel this week got within a few hundred yards of their kibbutz before they were intercepted and gunned down by Israel Defense Force patrols.
Peled said the fact that both got so close to the border indicated they had help from elements north of the security zone.
According to a front-page commentary by Reuven Pedatzur in Haaretz Wednesday, an “understanding between Amal and local PLO leaders was institutionalized on Saturday night in a cooperation agreement signed by both sides.”
DISTURBED BY DEVELOPMENT
The IDF is seriously disturbed by this development, which could lead to a further deterioration of its sensitive relationship with Amal in southern Lebanon.
Pedatzur wrote that “According to Amal’s operational conception, every foreign element in the security zone constitutes a target for attack, including the (Israel-backed) South Lebanon Army and IDF soldiers.”
Haaretz reported Thursday that there were 632 attacks on the IDF and SLA in the security zone this year, compared to 593 in 1987. Most were perpetrated by Hezbollah, the newspaper said.
The three terrorists shot to death by an IDF patrol Wednesday while trying to cut the border fence opposite Manara were identified as members of the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine.
It is a splinter group of the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, headed by Ahmed Jabril.
Three terrorist infiltrators killed Sunday in the same location belonged to Abu Nidal’s Fatah Revolutionary Council.
The Jabril and Nidal groups were reported to be high on the FBI list of suspects responsible for the bomb that killed 259 people aboard Pan American Flight 103 and at least 11 on the ground.
The Jabril and Nidal groups oppose the peace offensive launched by Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and may be trying to sabotage it, according to experts on terrorism.
TERROR ATTACKS RISE
The incidence of infiltration attempts by radical Palestinian groups has increased since Arafat’s remarks in Geneva Dec. 14, which led to the United States opening a dialogue with the PLO.
Professor Ariel Merari, of Tel Aviv University’s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, said in a television interview Wednesday night that “one may assume that the rejectionist organizations, those supported by Syria, are making a special effort to reach Israel in order to prove that the armed struggle continues and that Arafat does not represent all the Palestinians.”
Merari said, however, that he was not sure Arafat’s mainstream Fatah organization would discontinue infiltration attempts despite the PLO chief’s renunciation of terrorism.
Arafat in fact made clear he does not consider attacks on Israeli military targets to be acts of terror.
Avi Benayahu, writing in Al Hamishmar, reported that Arafat has directly or indirectly ordered Fatah leaders in southern Lebanon to try to find out if the American administration regards armed action along Israel’s northern border as terrorist activity.
Altogether, nine terrorists have died in infiltration attempts in the last five days.
In addition to the six killed by IDF patrols, three terrorists trying to reach Israel by sea drowned Saturday when their rubber dinghy capsized in heavy seas off the Lebanon coast.
Although these attempts failed, Gen. Peled warned, “We may have to take military measures … We have to be ready for the next terror attack, which I’m sure is on its way.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
