Israeli Copters Hit Targets in S. Lebanon

Israeli helicopter gunships delivered what an army spokesman characterized as a warning to militant Shia Muslims in southern Lebanon on Sunday, attacking houses in two villages that the army command said belonged to guerrilla fighters of the Hezbollah movement.

The action follows what Israeli military sources confirm was at least a partial cease-fire in actions against the pro-Iranian organization during earlier negotiations aimed at freeing American and Israeli hostages believed to be held by Hezbollah (Party of God) in Lebanon.

Sunday’s attacks were a direct reprisal for a daring raid last week, in which Hezbollah guerrillas overran an outpost of the mostly Christian, Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia at Braachit, the sources said. Six members of the South Lebanon Army and two Hezbollah fighters were killed in that action, and the attackers captured an armored troop carrier before being driven off by SLA reinforcements.

Intelligence Information

Israeli military sources said that Sunday’s raids in Qabrikha and Khirbet Silim, neighboring villages about five miles north of Braachit, were based on intelligence information that the guerrillas responsible for last week’s attack came from there.

“I can’t elaborate on the kind of intelligence, but we went after very specific targets,” one officer said. “It wasn’t random attacks on houses in those villages, but the houses from where the attackers came.”

Israeli radio later reported that one building in Qabrikha and two in Khirbet Silim were attacked with rocket and machine-gun fire. It quoted Lebanese sources as saying that four Israeli helicopters were involved in the operation.

News agency reports quoting police said the helicopter attacks killed at least three people and wounded eight.

‘Not Immune to Attack’

“The point is to make it very clear to the members of Hezbollah that they are not immune to attack,” an Israeli military source said of Sunday’s action. He said that Hezbollah has recently been “gaining strength in the area and has been using that strength and positions it has gained in the area to renew attacks against the SLA.”

Hezbollah guerrillas have been responsible for at least seven large-scale attacks on South Lebanon Army outposts in the region in recent months. Those assaults have left more than 20 of the Israeli-backed militiamen dead.

The Israeli military source noted that it is “part of our declared policy to provide assistance to the SLA whenever it is called for--whenever SLA needs our assistance or support, they will get it.”

The Christian-led militia group, numbering about 2,000 men, acts as an Israeli proxy force in an irregularly-shaped buffer strip extending up to 10 miles into Lebanon along the entire length of its frontier with Israel. Several hundred regular Israeli troops also remain in the so-called “security zone” to support the SLA and act as liaison. These troops can be quickly reinforced by Israeli units stationed just south of the border in case of larger-scale actions.

Refrained From Strikes

An Israeli military source noted that “for a certain period of time, due to the delicate negotiations regarding the American hostages in Lebanon, we refrained from attacking Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa” Valley in southeastern Lebanon.

While this source said that the cease-fire “never applied to the security zone,” the vast majority of publicly-announced Israeli actions north of the border have been against Palestinian targets. Those actions included 18 Israeli air raids in Lebanon last year.

The Reagan Administration, with Israeli help, supplied arms to Iran for more than a year, at least in part to try to win freedom for hostages believed held by militant Shia Muslims in Lebanon. The policy ended late last year when it was revealed publicly.