Muslims Seize Villages in Lebanon Left by Christians

Palestinian guerrillas and Muslim militias seized a string of villages abandoned by retreating Christian forces Friday, tightening their encirclement of south Lebanon’s largest Christian zone after a month of fighting.

Christian radio stations reported that tens of thousands of Christians were fleeing toward Jezzine, their main stronghold 15 miles east of Sidon.

No casualties were immediately reported.

The commander of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, former Lebanese Army Brig. Antoine Lahd, threatened to shell Sidon with long-range artillery from positions near Jezzine unless the Muslims halt their offensive.

Christian forces bombarded Sidon for a month until declaring a unilateral cease-fire last Tuesday. At least 113 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in that fighting.

The South Lebanon Army, which is mainly Christian, has about 200 fighters in Jezzine. The militia, with an overall strength estimated at less than 1,000, is based in Marjayoun, south of Jezzine.

Security officials in Sidon reported that the city, Lebanon’s third largest, was blacked out after retreating Christians shot at power cables, cutting off electricity to much of the area.

Officials at Sidon’s Hammoud Hospital, where most casualties are treated, said their power supplies had been severed.

Latest reports indicated that the Palestinians and their Muslim allies had reached Majdalyoun, three miles east of Sidon--south Lebanon’s provincial capital--where Christian militiamen of the Lebanese forces were digging in.

Palestinian guerrillas drove Christian fighters out of their last stronghold in Mieh Mieh village before dawn after a four-hour battle and then went on a looting rampage.

The Christians fell back when they apparently ran out of ammunition. A Palestinian guerrilla told reporters, “We found machine guns and other weapons just abandoned inside the houses.”

Despite efforts by the Lebanese army to halt the looting, columns of pickup trucks and cars loaded with furniture, electrical appliances, rugs and chandeliers were seen driving down the hill from Mieh Mieh throughout the morning.

‘Their Turn Now’

“They’re doing what the Christians did to them,” a Lebanese army officer, who declined to be identified, said as he watched the ransacking. “It’s their turn now.”

The Muslim advance out of Sidon--which until last Wednesday was besieged by the Christian Lebanese Forces with artillery--was halted when the militias ran into sniper fire on the outskirts of Majdalyoun, according to Lebanese army sources who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.

Palestinian guerrillas and Muslim militias last Thursday stormed two Christian suburbs southeast of Sidon, driving out Christian gunmen in a series of clashes. The attackers looted and burned houses.

Muslim irregulars moved in unopposed at daybreak to occupy the villages of Abra, Hlaliyeh, Bramiyeh, Qinnaya and Qayaa, which were abandoned by the retreating Christians.

Jezzine, with a population of 20,000, appeared increasingly isolated after Israeli troops left the town last Wednesday, when they pulled out of east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in the second stage of their withdrawal from territory they have occupied since June, 1982.

Muslim Druse fighters with tanks took over abandoned Israeli positions in the nearby Barouk mountains, raising Christian fears of renewed sectarian fighting in the south.

The Maronite Christian archbishop of Sidon, Ibrahim el Helou, appealed to Christian President Amin Gemayel and Muslim Prime Minister Rashid Karami for urgent government intervention.

“Save us quickly,” the archbishop said. “The blood of our men, women, elderly people and children is a trust for which you are responsible.”

The Palestinians and their militia allies advanced from Sidon after Lebanese Forces Cmdr. Samir Geagea withdrew some 350 Beirut-based fighters from hilltop positions overlooking Sidon on Wednesday. The militiamen were evacuated by boat, leaving local fighters badly outnumbered.

The pullback, which coincided with the Israeli withdrawal from the Bekaa, was apparently aimed at preventing the main Lebanese Forces column from being outflanked.

On Thursday, two Lebanese air force Hawker Hunter fighters strafed the Palestinian refugee camp at Mieh Mieh, killing one man and wounding 17 people, witnesses said. The Lebanese military command denied that the planes opened fire.

Fighting between Muslim and Christian militias flared for several hours across the line between east and west Beirut Friday, killing at least seven people in shell and rocket fire.

The clashes apparently were touched off by the sectarian violence in Sidon.