U.S. Hospital Chief Abducted in West Beirut

A Southern California man who serves as the director of Beirut’s American University Hospital was abducted Tuesday as he walked to work in the mainly Muslim sector of Lebanon’s battle-scarred capital.

Witnesses said that David P. Jacobsen of Huntington Beach was seized by six gunmen in a blue van as he walked the few blocks from his home on the university’s campus in the Manara area of West Beirut to his office at the university medical center.

The 54-year-old Jacobsen, who most recently worked at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, has been director of the 420-bed teaching hospital only since December. The job is equivalent to that of a hospital administrator in the United States.

Five other Americans have been reported kidnaped in Beirut in the last year and are still missing.

Two Frenchmen were abducted here Sunday as they drove to the Beirut airport. They have not been heard from.

A group calling itself Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) has announced that it is holding four of the missing Americans as hostages for the release of 17 people imprisoned in Kuwait for helping stage bomb attacks against the U.S. and French embassies there in December, 1983.

Islamic Jihad has warned that there will be “catastrophic consequences” if the prisoners in Kuwait are not freed.

Appeal to Kidnapers

Officials at the university appealed to Jacobsen’s kidnapers to release him, saying in a statement that the gunmen probably did not understand the nature of Jacobsen’s job.

However, hospital officials said there are fears that Jacobsen’s disappearence might have stemmed from a controversy in the last few days resulting from the armed clashes between Shia Muslim militiamen and Palestinian guerrillas in refugee camps just south of Beirut.

The Palestinians have claimed that their wounded are being denied proper medical treatment and admission to the hospital. Thus, Jacobsen might have been abducted--in the bizarre logic of Lebanon’s civil war--in hopes of winning more equitable treatment for Palestinian wounded.

Nonpartisan History

The hospital has a long history of nonpartisanship in treating the wounded from 10 years of civil strife in Lebanon. Often, enemies are carried to the same casualty wards to recover from gunshot wounds.

The hospital’s medical staff held a meeting Tuesday morning to discuss Jacobsen’s abduction and issued a statement decrying the kidnaping. It said, in part: “The medical faculty now announces it feels such an act will have a negative effect on medical services at AUB (American University of Beirut) Hospital.”

The century-old university, founded by American missionaries, has been the scene of increasing violence in recent months.

University President Malcolm Kerr was assassinated by unknown assailants in January, 1984. His predecessor, David Dodge, was kidnaped in 1982 and held prisoner for nearly a year before being released.

One of the Americans whose abduction was claimed by Islamic Jihad is Peter Kilburn, the university’s librarian. A recent communique from the group, however made no mention of Kilburn, raising concerns for his health. He had suffered a stroke before he was kidnaped.

Other U.S. Hostages

The four other American hostages are Terry Anderson, the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press; William Buckley, a U.S. Embassy political officer; the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian pastor, and Father Lawrence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest who headed Catholic Relief Services in Lebanon.

Jacobsen told a reporter recently that he exercised a high degree of caution about his personal security, varying his daily schedule and going around with bodyguards. However, he walked to work Tuesday accompanied only by a doctor at the hospital.

The gunmen fired a shot between the doctor’s legs. The bullet tore his trousers but did not injure him.

According to one official at the hospital, after the shot was fired, Jacobsen told his kidnapers in broken Arabic, “OK, I’ll go with you.”

He was bundled into the back seat of the van and driven off.

Meanwhile, the British Broadcasting Corp., whose programs are widely heard in Lebanon, announced in London that it has withdrawn its three correspondents from the Lebanese capital after threats concerning its news coverage. The nature of the threats was not disclosed.

Battle at Camps

In the continuing battle at Palestinian refugee camps in the Beirut area, encircled Palestinian guerrillas Tuesday briefly recaptured some key positions from Shia Muslim forces besieging the Sabra and Chatilla camps, the Associated Press reported.

The Palestinians apparently had infiltrated through the tunnel network under the two camps and recaptured one wing of a nursing home. A Shia official charged that the Palestinians drugged the tea of the garrison and then killed 20 Shias. Palestinian spokesmen denied the charged.

The Palestinians were driven back from their positions after a four-hour bombardment by Shia guns.

Police reported 20 people killed and 62 wounded in fighting Tuesday, raising the known casualty toll to 389 killed and 1,755 wounded in the nine-day battle of the camps.