Toll Rises to 9 Dead, 84 Hurt in Beirut Bombing; 3 Still Missing

Police reported late Friday that at least nine people were killed and 84 were injured when a car bomb rigged with 200 pounds of TNT exploded earlier in the day between a school and a crowded vegetable market in Christian East Beirut. Three others were reported missing.

The blast collapsed two six-story apartment buildings and set 12 other buildings on fire, and police arrested two men, ages 19 and 22, in connection with the bombing. The men were not further identified.

In other violence here Friday, Shia Muslim militiamen fought Palestinian guerrillas with mortars and machine guns around two refugee camps in West Beirut, forcing closing of the main highway to Beirut International Airport. Police said that two people were killed and 16 wounded in fighting around the two camps, which began as a personal quarrel.

Syria Blamed

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the car bombing, the sixth in East Beirut this year. The Lebanese Forces, the nation’s largest Christian militia, accused Syria’s intelligenc1696625509aiming to obstruct national reconciliation.

The Christian radio station Voice of Lebanon accused Syria also of engineering artillery duels between Christian and Muslim militias that since dusk on Wednesday have killed 57 people and injured 171.

Youssef Bitar, a police bomb expert, said the car bomb was rigged with 200 pounds of TNT attached to an 82-millimeter mortar shell. Five previous car bombs in east Beirut this year have killed 63 people and injured 405.

Rescue workers dug nine bodies from under two collapsed buildings, and civil defense rescuers said they fear that others might still be buried.

The rigged car was parked near a high school, but police said no students were reported hurt. Among the injured were 25 women shoppers at the vegetable market. Many were cut by flying glass.

Report of Hostages

In Paris, meanwhile, television station Antenne 2 announced that four members of one of its television crews held hostage here since early March have sent letters and photographs indicating for the first time that they are well.

Color snapshots show the four men, unshaven, reading a May 14 edition of the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Le Jour, according to Paul Nahon, deputy director of the station’s news department.

This first reported communication from the French captives also is believed to be the first communication from any of the foreigners held hostage in Lebanon since four Americans sent letters to the public and their families last November.