Unity Government Falls in Lebanon; Fighting Mounts

Lebanon’s year-old national unity government collapsed today in the face of what Prime Minister Rashid Karami called “a horrific nightmare”--a savage house-to-house battle between rival militias for control of Muslim West Beirut.

At least 29 people were reported killed and 120 wounded in the worst fighting in Beirut in more than a year. The battle capped three weeks of factional combat, centered first in the southern port of Sidon, in which well over 100 people have died.

Fighting between Muslims and Christians in Sidon was in its 20th day today. The death toll there stood at 83.

‘A Horrific Nightmare’

“What has happened is a horrific nightmare,” said Karami, a 63-year-old Sunni Muslim. He agreed to lead a “national unity” government a year ago to support the efforts of President Amin Gemayel, a Maronite Christian, to end the political chaos that has plagued Lebanon for two decades.

Hospitals kept a count of dead and wounded in the fierce street battle between the Shia Amal militia and its former allies, Sunni irregulars of the Mourabitoun, Arabic for “ambushers.” Fighting tapered off later in the day, and Amal, with the aid of Walid Jumblatt and his Druze militia, appeared clearly in control after the two-day war.

Near Canadian Embassy

The battle swirled around the Canadian Embassy in West Beirut’s main shopping district. Diplomatic sources said staff members would remain on duty, but their families were being evacuated to the Christian port of Juniyah, north of the capital.

Karami said Amal’s crackdown on the Mourabitoun, its former companion in battle against Christian warlords, was “colossally dangerous.”

“No one can justify what is happening in our capital, Beirut,” he told the 4 million people of his fragmented nation in a five-minute radio address.

“To apologize to you, brothers, for what has happened, I tender to you and to Beirut the resignation of the national unity Cabinet,” he said.

Caretaker Role Urged

The prime minister then telephoned his resignation to Gemayel in suburban Baabda. Local radio stations said the president asked Karami to stay on as caretaker until a new government can be formed.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said the resignation “comes at an untimely moment. The United States deeply regrets the bloodshed that has occurred in West Beirut.

“It has been our consistent goal to have in Lebanon a central government able and willing to exert control over all Lebanese territory,” he said. “We urge that all parties in Lebanon exert themselves toward this end.”