U.N. Official Kidnaped in Beirut

Another Westerner was kidnaped in Muslim West Beirut on Wednesday, just hours after the Islamic Jihad terrorist group sent a newspaper the photographs of six previous kidnap victims, including four Americans, and issued “for the last time” conditions for their release.

Aidan Walsh of Ireland, a senior U.N. relief official, was kidnaped by eight heavily armed men in combat fatigues who forced his well-marked U.N. station wagon to a halt. There was no claim of responsibility.

Walsh, 49, has for two years been deputy director of the Vienna-based U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which aids Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps. His abduction, his driver said, was well-organized and took less than two minutes.

No mention was made of Walsh in the photographs and statement--dated May, 1985, and signed by Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War)--that were delivered to the respected Arab-language newspaper An Nahar.

The newspaper identified the Americans pictured as U.S. Embassy political officer William Buckley; Presbyterian minister Benjamin Weir; Roman Catholic missionary Lawrence Jenco, and Associated Press reporter Terry A. Anderson, who were kidnaped between May, 1984, and March, 1985.

The other two pictures showed Frenchmen Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton, both of the French Embassy in West Beirut and both kidnaped in March.

‘Horrible Disaster’

An Nahar said there was no way of accurately dating the photographs.

“Their release is up to your action to persuade your governments to pressure them to ask their agents in Kuwait to release all our brothers who are jailed there,” said a typewritten statement to the men’s relatives.

“For the last time, we warn you that any contact between you and your kidnaped relatives will be cut and that the punishment will be a horrible disaster in case you do not act seriously in this respect and pressure your governments to intervene and set them (our brothers) free. . . ,” the statement said. “We will not be patient for a long time but instead will act in a way that will terrify America and France forever.”

“Our brothers” apparently are three Lebanese Shia Muslims and seven Iraqis jailed in Kuwait for a series of bombings against French and U.S. targets there that killed six people on Dec. 12, 1983.

The notes also contained appeals to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who helped obtain the release of a U.S. Navy flier shot down by Syrian forces over Lebanon in December, 1983.

Islamic Jihad, an underground group with suspected links to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is believed to have been responsible for attacks that include the suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in October, 1983.

Meanwhile, rival militias battled with artillery, rockets and machine guns in their 18th day of open war along the line that divides Beirut into Christian and Muslim sectors. Police reported at least nine people killed and 22 wounded.