U.S. Presses Anti-Libya Campaign : Kadafi ‘Thinks It’s All Right to Shoot’ Children--Reagan

President Reagan denounced Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi and his associates Thursday as “fellas who think it’s all right to shoot 11-year-old girls” as the Administration continued to press its economic and diplomatic offensive against the Tripoli regime.

Reagan’s comments, his first since last Friday’s terrorist attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports, came after he was asked to reply to Kadafi’s remarks praising the airport attacks as “heroic” and his threat to harass “American citizens in their own streets” if Washington retaliates for the assaults. Fifteen travelers, including five Americans, were killed in the two airport attacks. Four of the terrorists were also slain.

The U.S. government has determined that the attacks were carried out by the Abu Nidal group, a violent Palestinian faction supported by Kadafi, and officials have blamed Libya for the massacre. Among the victims was 11-year-old Natasha Simpson, daughter of an American journalist living in Rome.

Ends Weeklong Vacation

“I don’t answer fellas who think it’s all right to shoot 11-year-old girls,” Reagan said in Los Angeles as he wound up a weeklong New Year’s holiday in California.

Reagan shouted his reply in response to a question shouted by a reporter after he landed at Los Angeles International Airport.

The President’s condemnation was echoed by State Department spokesman Charles Redman, who said: “We particularly abhor Kadafi’s making excuses for the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent men, women and children. . . . Beyond this, we will not dignify his remarks (with a reply).”

Redman also renewed the U.S. government’s warning to American citizens to stay away from Libya. The 1,500 Americans now living in that country are in danger, he said, “because of the unpredictability of actions by the Kadafi regime.”

Passports Invalid

Since 1981, U.S. passports technically have been invalid for travel to Libya without special permission, which is granted to journalists, employees of humanitarian agencies or others whose trips are considered to be in the U.S. national interest. The courts have struck down all penalties for violation of these passport restrictions, but the State Department keeps them in force to dramatize the danger of such travel.

Behind the reproaches is an Administration campaign to persuade the world to cut all remaining links with Libya.

“We believe that those (sanctions against terrorism) are actions that are best undertaken by the international community on a broad basis,” Redman said. “If they are going to be effective, then they’re going to have to be implemented forcefully by the international community and not just by one nation or a handful of nations. . . .”

Sanctions Against Kadafi

He added: “We ourselves have already imposed a number of diplomatic and economic sanctions against the Kadafi regime. We hope other countries will do the same.”

As a result of trade restrictions imposed in recent years, Redman said U.S. exports of military equipment and high technology to Libya have stopped, and total exports have fallen from $860 million in 1979 to $200 million in 1984. But many European nations, including some close U.S. allies, purchase Libyan oil and maintain full diplomatic relations with the Kadafi regime.

Redman would not comment on possible U.S. military action against Libya, although he pointedly refused to rule out the use of force. An earlier State Department statement that “the military option is one we have always retained” had prompted Kadafi’s New Year’s Day threat to meet force with force if either the United States or Israel retaliated for the airport attacks.

U.S. officials scoffed Thursday at the prospect of the use of conventional military force by the Libyan army, which has had an undistinguished record on the battlefield. However, they expressed some concern that Kadafi might employ Libyan assassination squads in the United States.