PLO-Shia Warfare Persists as 3 Nations Try to Stop Lebanon Bloodshed

Shia Muslim militiamen and Palestinian guerrillas fought in Beirut and southern Lebanon on Monday despite combined efforts by Iran, Libya and Syria to halt the bloodshed.

The death toll in 15 days of fighting rose to more than 430 killed and at least 1,000 wounded.

Police said two people were killed and eight wounded Monday in clashes between Shia Amal militiamen and Palestine Liberation Organization fighters at Beirut’s Chatilla and Borj el Brajne refugee camps. Six people were wounded in sniper fire exchanges around Maghdousheh, a hilltop town southeast of the port city of Sidon.

PLO spokesmen said Palestinian fighters repulsed an overnight attempt by Amal militiamen to recapture Maghdousheh’s western sector, which the PLO seized two weeks ago.

That part of Maghdousheh overlooks the Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el Hilwa and Miye ou Miye. It also commands the coastal highway linking Sidon with the predominantly Shia south.

In Damascus, the Palestine National Salvation Front called for a cease-fire at the urging of Syrian, Iranian and Libyan mediators.

Palestinian sources in Damascus said a cease-fire accord was reached in talks between Libya’s No. 2 leader, Maj. Abdel-Salam Jalloud, and officials of several guerrilla groups based in Damascus. Iranian officials in the Syrian capital also were trying to assist in working out a truce.

Amal’s leader, Lebanese Justice Minister Nabih Berri, rejected the Libyan plan because it called on both Amal and the Palestinians to withdraw from Maghdousheh and turn over their positions to Lebanese militia groups who have remained neutral in the PLO-Amal war.

The Salvation Front is a loose coalition of six Damascus-based Palestinian factions opposed to PLO leader Yasser Arafat. But the front’s troops have joined PLO guerrillas in the fighting against the Amal Shias.

Amal has been fighting the Palestinians intermittently since May, 1985, with the declared objective of preventing Arafat from rebuilding the Lebanon power base he lost in Israel’s 1982 invasion.

Arafat has denied any such plans. But U.N. and Palestinian officials say an estimated 3,500 PLO guerrillas have returned to Beirut and southern Lebanon.