Shia Leaders Among Dead in Lebanon Mosque Blast

A booby-trap bomb killed 12 people, including two Shia Muslim guerrilla leaders, and wounded 40 others at a stone mosque in this south Lebanese village today.

In nearby Tyre, doctors said that 30 minutes after the blast, 40 Israeli troops firing automatic weapons stormed the city’s main Jebel Amel hospital looking for patients from Maarake.

The two Shias killed in the mosque explosion were leaders of anti-Israeli resistance in south Lebanon and villagers immediately blamed Israeli agents for planting the ball-bearing filled device, a charge denied by Israel.

Half of South ‘Martyred’

In Beirut, the Shia Amal militia’s national leader, Nabih Berri, said the bomb killed Mohammed Saad, the militia’s military chief, and senior Amal guerrilla Khalil Jeradi. “Half of the south has been martyred,” Berri told reporters.

He accused Israeli troops of planting the 30-pound bomb in the mosque’s upper room during an 11-hour raid on the village on Saturday and called for a Lebanese army attack on the Israelis.

The bomb went off at mid-morning, less than 48 hours after the withdrawal of the 800 Israeli occupation troops and intelligence men who had stormed Maarake hunting guerrillas. Maarake has been a center of Shia resistance against the Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon.

In an unusual written statement, the Israeli army said that it “flatly denies” Israeli forces were involved and that there were no Israeli soldiers in Maarake at the time.

The doctors in Tyre said the Israelis beat up hospital director Ahmed Mroue before arresting at least seven people lined up to give blood for bomb victims. Several people were tied up and slung over the top of armored personnel carriers, the doctors said.

One doctor said an old man was wounded and about 35 people were seized.

Israeli troops have come under mounting attacks from guerrillas working in a cluster of Shia villages east of Tyre known for their resistance to Israeli occupation.

Saad and Jeradi were attending a meeting of Amal officials and villagers in an upper room of Maarake’s religious center when the blast went off. Amal officials said they believed the bomb had been placed in a sofa or bookcase.

Wandered Aimlessly

Villagers, in a state of shock, wandered aimlessly in the streets or stood motionless in doorways as U.N. and Red Cross rescuers worked to free victims from the rubble.

In Beirut, President Amin Gemayel summoned the ambassadors or charges d’affaires of the five permanent member countries of the U.N. Security Council to brief them on the explosion.

Prime Minister Rashid Karami told reporters that the meeting also took up Lebanon’s complaint to the U.N. Security Council, submitted last month, about Israeli practices in southern Lebanon.