Israeli Jets Bomb Guerrilla Sites in Lebanon; Huge Fires Reported

Israeli warplanes bombed suspected Palestinian guerrilla targets in four villages in the Shouf mountains southeast of Beirut on Tuesday, inflicting damage and triggering huge fires. One civilian was reported injured.

The raid came shortly after Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin completed a tour of the Israeli-declared “security zone” in southern Lebanon, vowing to help Israel’s militia allies, which are facing increasing attacks by Shia Muslim fighters.

He confirmed reports of increased Israeli military activity in the six- to 10-mile-wide security zone Israel has established in Lebanon along its border.

“When there is an increase in hostilities by terrorists, we will increase our support,” Rabin said one day after Israel sent new troops, tanks and artillery to the border area to beef up its surrogate militia, the South Lebanon Army.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Charles Redman expressed concern at the increasing tensions in Lebanon. “We have long deplored the cycle of violence in Lebanon and urge all parties to exercise restraint,” he said.

Abu Moussa Group Hit

An Israeli Defense Forces spokesman in Jerusalem said the Israeli aircraft pounded targets belonging to the Abu Moussa group and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, breakaway factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Witnesses said the aircraft were fired upon with heavy automatic anti-aircraft batteries but that all the warplanes apparently flew safely back to Israel at dusk.

“The planes hit terrorist sites, including a departure base for attacks on Israel by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and several structures far from population areas,” the Israeli spokesman said.

He said the suspected guerrilla targets were in the Shouf mountain area controlled by Lebanon’s Druze, members of an offshoot Muslim sect.

‘Accurate Hits’

“The pilots reported accurate hits on their targets,” the Israeli spokesman said, adding that the suspected guerrilla bases were in “several buildings” away from populated areas.

A spokesman of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party, which controls the Shouf mountains, said one civilian was wounded. “That’s according to what we received initially,” he said.

Police and witnesses in Lebanon said two Israeli warplanes bombed targets at 5:30 p.m. around the villages of Baissour, Kaifoun, Aitat and Aramoun, igniting huge fires and sending black smoke billowing. They said two other warplanes provided cover for the attack.

In another incident in southern Lebanon, witnesses said three Soviet-designed Katyusha rockets bracketed a French U.N. peacekeeping position, and one struck a building at the base earlier in the day. A U.N. spokesman said there were no casualties.

The latest hit-and-run raid on the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon came as Shia Muslim fighters of the Amal militia were put on maximum alert in the southern city port of Tyre.