Israelis Storm Villages in Southern Lebanon

Israeli soldiers led by tanks and helicopter gunships stormed Shia Muslim villages in southern Lebanon today. U.N. and police officials said the sweep was the biggest since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in June.

The military command in Tel Aviv said the raids were carried out to arrest villagers suspected of anti-Israeli guerrilla attacks.

Katyusha rockets, grenades and bombs were confiscated during the raids on the villages of Qabrikha, Majd al-Salim and Chaqra, five miles west of the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shemona, the Israeli announcement said.

Police sources said Israeli troops conducted a house-to-house search for arms and interrogated the villagers about guerrilla activities.

Two Soldiers Killed

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the area Aug. 5. The military command also said rockets were recently fired toward Israel from the area.

Only two hours after the Israeli raids, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at a checkpoint manned by Israeli-backed militiamen in southern Lebanon, killing a member of the South Lebanon Army militia and wounding two other militiamen.

Security sources in Beirut said the attack on a road from the port of Sidon to the Christian town of Jezzine was carried out by a member of the pro-Syrian Baath Party. (A communique issued by the Baath Party in Beirut claimed that 60 people were killed or wounded in the suicide bombing.)

Suicide Bombings

There have been several suicide bombings in the security zone that the South Lebanon Army militia has maintained along the border in southern Lebanon since the Israeli withdrawal was largely completed in early June. Five Lebanese were killed July 9 when two suicide bombs went off in separate locations 10 minutes apart.

Today’s Israeli raid was launched as Israel freed another 113 Lebanese, most of them Shias, from Atlit prison near Haifa. In recent weeks, the Israelis have freed more than 500 Lebanese, whose release was demanded by Shia gunmen who hijacked a TWA plane to Beirut on June 14.

The high-spirited prisoners boarded Red Cross buses inside the security zone. That left about 125 prisoners in the prison, security sources said.