Israel Pushes Hunt for Two Captives; Seaman Is Killed

An Israeli seaman was killed and at least eight southern Lebanese villagers were wounded Tuesday as reinforced Israeli forces expanded their search for two of their soldiers captured in a guerrilla ambush the day before.

The Israeli military command in Tel Aviv said that Cpl. Daniel Amar, 19, was killed on a naval patrol craft by gunfire from ashore. The navy is monitoring key intersections along the main coastal road near Tyre in case the guerrillas should attempt to use the road as an escape route.

The Israeli command confirmed that it has sent substantial reinforcements across the border into Lebanon. But a senior military source emphasized that the goal is “not to retake Lebanon and not to expand or enlarge” the security zone that Israel has established in southern Lebanon.

The reinforcements, supported by tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters and other heavy equipment, have been ordered to seal off “specific areas where we have some intelligence that the hostages and the terrorists may be,” the source said.

The two Israeli soldiers were captured and two members of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia were killed in an ambush Monday near Beit Yahoun, about five miles north of the international border in the security zone.

The Syrian-supported National Resistance Front, an umbrella Islamic guerrilla group that has vowed to fight on until Israel dismantles the security zone and disbands the mostly Christian South Lebanon Army, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Both captured Israelis were wounded and are receiving medical care, the resistance group said. A man described as one of the captured soldiers was shown on Lebanese television Monday night wearing a bloodstained head bandage.

A statement distributed in Beirut by the Islamic Resistance, an alliance of fundamentalist Shia Muslims that claims to hold the soldiers, said:

“We warn the Zionist forces that they must immediately withdraw from all the villages they have targeted in their latest invasion. Otherwise, and within 24 hours, we will execute one of the two prisoners.”

The statement said the two have been taken to a “safe location well beyond Israel’s reach.”

The Israelis believe that the statements and television footage may be meant to deceive them and that the hostages and their captors may still be in the security zone or the area immediately north of it.

A senior Israeli officer said the army will continue to search in southern Lebanon “as long as we don’t have any proof that they’re not there.”

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, on a tour of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, said the search will continue “until we discover the tracks of the kidnapers.”

However, Israeli media reported today that the Islamic Resistance had correctly identified their two captives and provided pictures of their army identification cards. The group threatened to kill one of them by 9 p.m. tonight unless the Israelis pulled back their troops, the Israeli reports said.

The senior Israeli officer said Israel’s forces have encountered very little resistance and that except for Cpl. Amar, there have been no reports of casualties, either Israeli or Lebanese.

But Timor Goksel, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said in a telephone interview from the U.N. troops’ headquarters at Naqoura that eight Lebanese civilians were hospitalized Tuesday in Tyre with gunshot wounds received during the Israeli sweep.

He said three of the victims were reported wounded in the village of Bir Assanassil, north of Tibnin, when an Israeli patrol fired into a local shop. He conceded that no U.N. personnel witnessed the incident.

Beirut radio said Tuesday that three Lebanese fighters were killed and nine others wounded in the Israeli sweep.

Goksel said the Israelis conducted full-scale searches in seven villages in areas of southern Lebanon where U.N. forces are deployed. All males above the age of 16 in those villages were rounded up for questioning and 27 were arrested, he said. U.N. troops were ordered to monitor the searches to “prevent any ill treatment of the people,” Goksel said.

No clashes were reported between U.N. and Israeli troops.

Goksel said he had no information about the progress of the search inside the irregularly shaped security zone, which extends up to 10 miles north of the border and stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the slopes of Mt. Hermon on the Syrian border. Israel does not allow U.N. troops into the zone.

The Israeli officer suggested that any civilian casualties “could have been from gunfire other than ours.” He specifically denied U.N. reports that Israeli helicopter gunships were conducting “search by fire” operations north of the border.

“We are not using helicopters for carpet firing,” the officer said, adding that the gunships are used to silence pockets of resistance or to locate the source of enemy fire.

The Israelis will not disclose the number of troops involved in the sweep. U.N. officials estimated Monday that there were at least 500, and Lebanese reports Tuesday indicated that hundreds more have joined the operation.