Israeli Navy Intercepts Dinghy, Kills 5 Terrorists

An Israeli gunboat patrolling off southern Lebanon opened fire on a rubber dinghy heading toward Israel, killing five camouflaged terrorists, the Israeli military command announced Wednesday.

It said the dinghy, spotted overnight south of Tyre, “attempted to escape our forces, at which point gunfire was directed at it. The dinghy was destroyed, and the terrorists aboard were killed.”

The dinghy was equipped with a 50-horsepower motor and was “painted in camouflaged colors,” the command said. It bore Arabic markings “familiar to us from a previous incident involving a terrorist boat.”

Truce Holding

In Beirut, meanwhile, Christian and Muslim guerrillas fought a series of gun battles Wednesday, but a cease-fire appeared to be taking hold after 10 days of fighting.

Police reported three militiamen and a civilian were wounded Wednesday. Since April 28, 77 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and 400 wounded, police said. Thirty-eight of those killed were slain Tuesday in the heaviest shelling in Beirut in nearly a year.

The cease-fire was shattered hours after it was declared at sundown Tuesday. Artillery and gun battles broke out during the night, but tapered off Wednesday into exchanges of machine-gun and rifle fire.

“The shooting is acceptable cease-fire violations and is by no means a collapse of the last cease-fire accord,” a militia source said.

Streets Deserted

The relative lull gave civilians who have been huddling in basements and bomb shelters a chance to get out to buy food. But the streets on both sides of the so-called Green Line, dividing the Muslim and Christian sectors, remained virtually deserted.

President Amin Gemayel met with government leaders and army commanders in an attempt to cement the cease-fire, believed to be the 29th announced truce since heavy sectarian fighting broke out in the capital last month.

The “security committee,” made up of officials of the army and three main feuding militias, called for the dismantling of barricades at the Museum Crossing, a key travel point between the two sectors on the Green Line.

Reopening the Museum Crossing was part of the cease-fire agreement reached on Tuesday by the committee. The accord also called for the militias to withdraw with their heavy weapons from the Green Line.

But when bulldozers were sent in Wednesday, Christian and Muslim fighters opened fire with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades until the heavy machinery withdrew.

Bulldozers Pull Back

The Christian Voice of Lebanon radio said that Muslim gunmen fired first as the bulldozers tried to flatten earthworks on the Christian side. The Muslims denied they fired first and said the Christians initiated the action.

All six crossings between East Beirut and West Beirut remained closed Wednesday.

While government officials expressed hopes that the latest cease-fire might hold, Druze fighters allied with the Muslim militiamen reportedly were building higher earthen barriers at the Museum Crossing.