6 Militiamen Killed in S. Lebanon; Food Barred From Beirut Camps

Six militiamen of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army were killed and two were wounded when Iranian-backed Shia Muslim guerrillas attacked their position in southern Lebanon, a spokesman for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon reported.

At least two of the guerrillas from the group Hezbollah (Party of God) were killed in the hit-and-run attack on the village of Braachit, inside Israel’s “security zone” in southern Lebanon, the UNIFIL spokesman said.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, made up of Hezbollah and other factions opposed to Israel, later issued a statement from Sidon saying its forces killed 15 people in the raid on the SLA position. The SLA confirmed the attack but said it lost only six militiamen.

Fighting in Beirut

Meanwhile, fighting flared between Palestinian guerrillas and Shia Muslim Amal militiamen in two refugee camps in Beirut, and Amal gunmen prevented a relief convoy from entering a besieged camp in south Lebanon.

A mortar bomb also crashed outside Beirut’s international airport, killing one person and wounding 10, police and witnesses said.

Police and hospital sources said five people were killed and 50 were wounded in mortar, rocket and machine gun battles that engulfed the Chatilla and Borj el Brajne Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

A statement by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine accused Amal of waging “a war of starvation” against beleaguered Palestinian camps.

“Refugees in Borj el Brajne have run out of flour and milk since one month. Mothers are feeding their infants water mixed with sugar instead of milk,” the statement said.

11,000 Reported Trapped

About 11,000 Palestinian civilians and fighters are trapped inside Borj el Brajne, and 3,000 others in nearby Chatilla camp in Beirut’s densely populated, mainly Shia Muslim southern suburbs.

Police said Amal militiamen, backed with Soviet-made tanks surrounding the camps, fought mortar and rocket battles with guerrillas in Chatilla.

Fighting also raged at nearby Borj el Brajne camp, police said.

Nine weeks of warfare in Beirut and southern Lebanon between Amal and the guerrillas has killed at least 500 people and wounded hundreds more, police and hospital sources said.

Amal is fighting to keep the Palestinians from regaining the strong military presence they lost when Israel invaded Lebanon in June, 1982.

Good-Will Gesture

Amal leader Nabih Berri on Monday announced a unilateral cease-fire as a good-will gesture for the new year and said his militias would allow relief supplies into the beleaguered camp of Rashidiyeh near Tyre, 46 miles south of Beirut.