Muslim-Communist Battle in W. Beirut Kills 21, Wounds 100 : Two U.S. Muslim Envoys Trapped in Hotel by Fighting

BEIRUT — Shia Muslims and communist fighters waged fierce street battles today in West Beirut. Police said at least 21 people were killed, 100 were wounded and dozens of buildings burned out of control.

The third consecutive day of fighting frustrated efforts to locate Anglican Church hostage negotiator Terry Waite, who has been missing for almost a month, and trapped two American Muslim envoys at their hotel.

It also brought to a standstill attempts to send U.N. food supplies into the besieged Palestinian refugee camps of Borj el Brajne and Chatilla. Nabih Berri’s Shia Muslim Amal militia allowed a U.N. food convoy into Borj el Brajne on Saturday.

Fighters Preoccupied

“Relative calm prevailed around both shantytowns because all parties are preoccupied with the Beirut conflict,” police said today.

In Damascus, Syria, Berri told reporters that Amal would lift the blockade on all Palestinian camps starting Wednesday morning.

“Amal leaders took this decision secretly two days ago and the clashes in Beirut will not stop us implementing our decision,” he said.

The conflict for control of West Beirut pitted Amal against the Moscow-oriented Communist Party and Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party militia.

It was their worst confrontation since Muslim militias wrested control of West Beirut from the Lebanese army in February, 1984.

Artillery and Rockets

The antagonists battled with jeep-mounted 106-mm. recoilless guns, .50-caliber machine guns, automatic weapons and shoulder-fired armor-piercing rockets.

The intensity of the fighting prevented ambulances and fire engines from entering many residential neighborhoods where fires burned out of control. Police said several apartment buildings were gutted.

Among the fatalities was a Lebanese Red Cross recruit killed while helping trapped residents evacuate the 12-story El Dorado office and apartment building in West Beirut’s commercial district of Hamra. Two other Red Cross rescuers were wounded, according to police.

Syrian military observers, assigned since last summer to restore order to West Beirut, unsuccessfully called a cease-fire at daybreak.

Joint Panels Formed

The Syrian observers formed joint committees of communist, Druze and Amal officials, but police said the committee members came under sniper fire during attempts to enforce a truce.

The American University Hospital, the nation’s biggest medical center, appealed for blood donations.

Some of the heaviest fighting flared around West Beirut’s Commodore Hotel, which served as a base of operations for many foreign correspondents before dozens of kidnapings drove them from the sector.

American Muslim envoys Mohammed Mehdi and Dale Shaheen, who came to West Beirut on Saturday to seek the release of kidnaped foreigners, were among those trapped in the Commodore by the fighting.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mehdi said. “Our mission is suspended until security conditions get better.”