Shia Attack Feared; 33 U.S. Aides Leave South Lebanon

Thirty-three Americans working with U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon have been withdrawn to Israel because of fears of an attack by Shia Muslim guerrillas, officials said Wednesday.

Timor Goksel, chief spokesman for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, confirmed that U.N. officials ordered the Americans not to report for work at UNIFIL’s offices in the Lebanese border village of Naqoura.

The order, issued by U.N. headquarters in New York last Friday, affects 16 American U.N. military observers and 17 U.S. civilian employees of UNIFIL, Goksel said.

In Tel Aviv, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said reports on the withdrawal of the American personnel are “basically accurate.”

‘No Direct Threat’

“There was no direct threat or reports received from the field by UNIFIL,” Goksel said, although it was clear that the Americans were withdrawn because of fears that they might be attacked or kidnaped by Lebanese Shia Muslims.

Shias have mounted increasing guerrilla attacks against Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, and Israel has responded by cracking down with a so-called “iron fist” policy aimed at protecting its troops.

The UNIFIL offices in Naqoura are 12 miles south of Tyre, where Shia Muslim resistance has escalated sharply since Jan. 16, when Israel announced a three-stage plan to withdraw from Lebanon. Israel invaded Lebanon in June, 1982, with the stated aim of ousting Palestinian guerrillas.

Goksel said the American UNIFIL workers ordered out of Lebanon normally commuted to Naqoura from the northern Israeli town of Nahariya.

‘Only Prudent Advice’

“It was only prudent advice and a safety precaution,” Goksel said of the withdrawal of the Americans. “It was a temporary measure for the time being, and no decision has been taken to reassign them.”

Goksel said the precautions were taken “pending clarification of the situation” in southern Lebanon.

In Beirut, meanwhile,seven people died in a bomb blast in a cafe Wednesday, and Israeli soldiers killed two suspected guerrillas in a clash in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon.

The explosion, the latest in a series of terrorist blasts that have plagued Beirut since January, came just after rival militiamen fought a gun battle in the streets of the city’s Muslim western sector.

State-owned Beirut radio said about 10 pounds of explosives blew up in the West Beirut cafe, which was packed with men sipping coffee and smoking water pipes, killing seven people and wounding 10. No one claimed responsibility.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli occupation forces killed two suspected guerrillas and wounded another in a clash near Kfar Sir, a village north of a new Israeli defense perimeter along the Litani River, Israeli military sources said in Jerusalem.