Fierce Battles Erupt in Muslim Areas of Beirut

Palestinian guerrillas, backed by their Lebanese Sunni allies, poured out of refugee camps early today and fought Shia Amal militiamen in fierce battles in Muslim sections of Beirut.

Police estimated that about 100 people were killed or wounded in the worst intra-Muslim fighting in six months.

The fighting broke out on the eighth day of a bitter war between Amal and the Palestinians in and around three camps in southern Beirut that have raged unabated despite direct Syrian mediation efforts to end the conflict, which had previously left at least 73 dead and more than 391 wounded.

The new fighting in West Beirut pitted the Amal militias against the Palestinians and their Sunni Muslim allies. Hundreds of people were trapped in burning appartments, an orphanage and other buildings that were hit by incendiary bullets and rocket-propelled grenades.

“Amal is fighting street battles in West Beirut against the Sunni Moslem factions on one front, and on another front it is locked in a bitter war against the Palestinian guerrillas around the (southern Beirut) refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila and Bourj Al Barajneh,” one source said. . . . It is an all-out war.”

“It’s an inferno,” a police spokesman said. “Even the main fire brigade center of West Beirut has been hit. . . . Many buildings are on fire, and no one can reach them. . . . Hundreds of families are trapped in buildings.

“The Islamic orphanage and the old age home have been hit by rockets. . . . Fighting is raging around these buildings and the entire Tarik Al Jedida neighborhood of West Beirut.”

The anti-Amal Lebanese Sunni Muslim forces distracted the Shia militias on more than one front in West Beirut, allowing the Palestinian guerrillas to spill out of their refugee camps, the sources said.

“Rooftop snipers are active, and entire neighborhoods are cut off,” the police spokesman said. “And thousands of people are trapped in their homes, basements and underground shelters. . . . The Red Cross and the fire brigade cannot reach those who need help.”

The warring Shia and Sunni Muslim factions--coming from two rival branches of Islam--blamed each other for the fighting that political sources said was the result of months of brewing conflict between the two sects.

Sunni groups, most of whom are pro-Palestinian, accuse Amal militias for the breakdown of law and order and the escalating wave of kidnapings and killings that has plagued West Beirut since February, 1984, when Christian units of the Lebanese Army were chased out.

Amal has dismissed the charges and accused the Sunni Muslims of collaborating with the Palestinian guerrillas, themselves locked in a bitter war in south Beirut with the Shia militiamen.

Police said the fighting started with a wave of kidnapings over the weekend and burst into all-out combat Monday night.

“It is the worst street fighting in six months when Amal fought the Druze Moslem militias of Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party in November last year,” a police spokesman said.