Israel’s Military Chief Leads Lebanon Assault

Israeli troops directly supervised by the army chief of staff killed five Palestinian guerrillas in southern Lebanon today in the Israelis’ deepest assault in the area since formally withdrawing in the summer.

The guerrillas were preparing attacks on Israel, an army spokesman said. There were no Israeli casualties in the assault in the Hasbaya area, he added.

Israeli Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Levy and the commander of Israel’s Northern Front, Maj. Gen. Ori Orr, were in the area to supervise the operation, military sources said.

The Israeli force, thrusting north of a self-declared security zone within south Lebanon, captured several guerrillas and seized weapons, the spokesman said.

He identified the dead and captured guerrillas as members of the Syrian-supported Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

The army spokesman said the guerrillas, whose group broke away from the mainline Palestine Liberation Organization when the PLO split in 1983, were preparing operations against Israel. He gave no details on the type of operations that Israel believed the guerrillas were preparing.

Two Katyusha rockets were fired last week from southern Lebanon into border areas of northern Israel but it was not immediately clear if Israel ascribed those actions to the guerrillas who were attacked today.

The rocket attacks caused no casualties.

Today’s operation was believed to have marked the deepest probe by Israeli forces into the eastern sector of southern Lebanon since Israel withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon this summer.

Israel radio’s military correspondent said the attacking force made its approach by foot under cover of darkness and stormed guerrilla positions in caves at dawn.