The World : PLO Attacks in Lebanon

Heavy artillery, mortar and machine-gun battles engulfed three refugee camps in southern Lebanon in an escalating conflict between Palestinians and Shia Muslims of the Amal militia. Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas stormed out of refugee camps before dawn and overran Amal strongholds in bloody pitched battles around the port city of Sidon, 24 miles south of Beirut, police said. An Amal official in Beirut later said that his group regained the positions and was advancing on a large Palestinian refugee camp. The onslaught was the first time PLO guerrillas had staged large-scale attacks from Lebanon’s refugee camps since Israel’s 1982 invasion smashed the PLO’s military infrastructure in Lebanon.