Major Attack on U.S. Diplomats Rumored : Anonymous Caller Tells of Plans by Islamic Jihad

An anonymous telephone caller claiming to represent the shadowy Islamic Jihad group said today that the Iran-linked extremists plan a major attack on U.S. diplomats.

The message, telephoned to a Western news agency in Beirut, came the day after the Reagan Administration declared that it will not negotiate with the group, believed to be composed of fundamentalist Shia Muslims, for the release of kidnaped U.S. citizens held hostage in Lebanon. (Story, Page 4.).

“The American government should await the largest military operation it has ever known,” the anonymous caller said.

“The organization has been preparing for this surprise for a long time,” the caller said. “Refusal of our demands will mean hell for its (America’s) diplomats across the world.”

There was no means of confirming the message’s authenticity. The news agency that received the call provided the information on the condition that it not be named.

‘Final Warning’ on Hostages

Islamic Jihad, whose name means “Holy War,” issued a “final warning” Thursday threatening “catastrophic consequences” for at least four Americans and two Frenchmen held hostage if Washington and Paris do not pressure Kuwait to free prisoners who were convicted of the December, 1983, bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

Another kidnap victim, the Irish deputy director of a U.N. relief program, said today that the gunmen who abducted him apparently thought he was an American and released him after discovering their error.

Aidan Walsh told reporters at the Beirut headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that the kidnapers beat him when he protested the abduction Wednesday. He bore scars and bruises on his forehead and around his left eye but appeared relaxed.

He said he was not otherwise physically harmed, and spent much of his 36 hours of captivity sitting in the darkened back of a van somewhere in Beirut.

Questioned on Nationality

Walsh, 48, said he was questioned about his nationality and why he was in Lebanon.

“We had some difficulty in the beginning because I think some of them didn’t understand there’s such a country as Ireland. I think they didn’t know where it was.”

“Once they had reached their own conclusions, they decided they obviously didn’t need me any more,” Walsh said. They let him out of the van in a Beirut neighborhood with enough money to catch a cab, he said.

In another terrorist move today, a bomb-laden car exploded today near a Druze militia office on a crowded commercial street in West Beirut, wounding eight people. The blast destroyed more than a dozen cars parked in the street and shattered the windows of nearby high-rise apartment buildings.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.