Lebanon Towns Seized, Looted by Palestinians
Muslim fighters seized a chain of villages abandoned by Christian militias today and Palestinian refugees swarmed in behind them, stripping the houses bare in a four-hour frenzy of looting.
Tens of thousands of Christians fled deeper into the hill country east of this ancient port.
Young Palestinian fighters and impoverished refugees from nearby camps ran through the narrow, smoke-filled streets. They broke into houses, some of which were still burning, and carried off everything that was loose or could be ripped free.
They took refrigerators, radios, sofas, carpets, chandeliers, even toys and tableware.
“This is war booty!” whooped a young guerrilla wearing a cowboy hat and clutching a shiny chandelier in the streets of Mieh Mieh.
“We’re not stealing,” said a young Palestinian gunman, heaving furniture into a battered pickup truck. “We’re only doing what the Christians have been doing to us for a long time.”
At least five people were reported killed and 35 wounded in scattered clashes as the Muslim militiamen and Palestinian fighters surged into the towns above Sidon behind the Christian retreat.
The Maronite archbishop of Sidon, Ibrahim el Helou, appealed for urgent government intervention to Lebanon’s Christian president, Amin Gemayel, and Prime Minister Rashid Karami, a Sunni Muslim.
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