Palestinians, Shias Clash in Beirut; 60 Slain

The Lebanese capital was engulfed Monday by fighting on two fronts when Shia Muslim fighters battled with Palestinian guerrillas at refugee camps and Muslim and Christian militiamen fired at each other across the Green Line.

Police reported at least 60 people were killed at three refugee camps in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Two were slain in the mid-city fighting, and a total of 270 were wounded in the various clashes.

The casualties were the worst single-day toll in Beirut since March 8 when a car bomb exploded near the home of a Shia Muslim cleric, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, killing more than 80 people and wounding 260.

Meanwhile, Saudi diplomat Hussein Farrash, kidnaped in Beirut in January, 1984, was flown back to his homeland Monday after Syria apparently intervened to aid his release, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi Arabian consul was believed kidnaped by the Muslim fundamentalist group Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War). Nine Westerners are still being held by the group.

Artillery Falls Silent

In an attempt to halt the Beirut combat, Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt and other Muslim leaders mediated a cease-fire starting at 5 p.m. Artillery fell silent at the appointed time, but reporters near the refugee camps of Sabra, Chatilla and Borj el Brajne reported hearing gunfire and explosions after the truce deadline passed.

One Palestinian spokesman, who requested anonymity, said the Shia Muslim Amal militia used the truce to wrest back “security centers” they lost in the Sabra camp during the day. He said Amal forces filtered back into Sabra behind Muslim units of the Lebanese army sent in under the cease-fire accord to separate the combatants.

The army’s 6th Brigade command said its units took up positions in Sabra and Borj el Brajne to “preserve security.” An army communique said the gunfire and explosions were part of “mopping-up operations undertaken by army units.” It did not elaborate.

Over the last few months, there have been frequent skirmishes in the camps as Amal tried to disarm the Palestinians. Monday’s fighting apparently broke out after Amal militiamen grabbed a teen-age Palestinian in the Sabra camp Sunday night for “illegal possession of arms.”

Palestinian Youth Beaten

Palestinians say the boy was beaten by the Amal militiamen. When they dragged the youth back to the camp, a Palestinian shot and wounded an Amal fighter.

General shooting followed, and police described the outbreak as “the worst armed collision ever” between the two groups in the camps.

Outnumbered Palestinian fighters in the three refugee camps held off a series of attacks by Amal militiamen. Some hand-to-hand combat was reported, and there were barrages from heavy artillery, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades around the camps.

Some of the fiercest fighting was around Sabra and Chatilla, where hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims were massacred by Christian Falangist militiamen Sept. 16-18, 1982.

“We’re taking heavy shelling,” one Palestinian in Sabra told reporters by telephone. “Many people are dying in their homes. They don’t have shelters.”

Urgent Appeals for Blood

Ambulances, their sirens wailing, braved shellfire to rush casualties out of the battle zones. Urgent radio appeals went out for blood donors. The top three floors of the nine-story Gaza Hospital, near Sabra, were badly damaged by mortar salvoes that started a fire. It was not known if any of the patients were injured in the shelling.

The fighting cut the main road to the Beirut airport. A single passenger flight landed at noon and one left, but airport officials later said operations were virtually paralyzed.