The World - News from Jan. 5, 1986

Gunmen in West Beirut ambushed a pro-Syrian politician, state-owned Beirut radio said. Witnesses said three men wearing armbands opened fire with machine guns on Antoine Alam’s car near the offices of Lebanon’s Syrian National Social Party. Alam, an official of the party, had emergency surgery for stomach wounds. His condition was not immediately known and it is not clear who staged the ambush. Meanwhile, militiamen of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian unit, seized all copies of the weekly magazine Al Massira, which contained an article critical of the recent truce agreement.