Syrians Kill 22 Pro-Iranian Beirut Fighters

Syrian troops enforcing a truce in embattled West Beirut killed 22 pro-Iranian Hezbollah militiamen Tuesday in hand-to-hand combat, police and hospital authorities said.

A hospital official said all the Hezbollah fatalities were “axed or bayoneted to death.”

Police said the Syrians clashed with fighters of Hezbollah, or Party of God, in Muslim West Beirut’s neighborhood of Basta at about 9:15 p.m. The mortally wounded Hezbollah fighters were rushed to the Muslim-controlled Beirut Hospital.

One ‘Barely Alive’

Hospital manager Abdullah Nawfal said 22 were dead and one was “barely alive” upon arrival.

“They (the 22) were all dead when they were brought in. They were all axed or bayoneted to death,” Nawfal said. “They were killed in hand-to-hand combat.”

He said members of Beirut’s Civil Defense Corps will take the bodies to the Bir Abed suburban neighborhood, where Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim group, has its command headquarters.

In another clash, the Syrians killed three Druze militiamen, authorities said.

Syria’s influence in Lebanon has been challenged by growing Iranian influence expressed through such extremist factions as Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is the most militant Shia faction in Lebanon. It has been frequently reported to be the sponsor of extremist groups involved in kidnaping Americans and other foreigners in Beirut.

A police spokesman, who would not let his name be used, said the Syrians arrested dozens of people in raids on houses in parts of West Beirut controlled by the Druze and Amal, the mainstream Shia militia. The Druze are an offshoot sect of Islam.

Both factions, along with Hezbollah, abandoned their major bases in West Beirut and withdrew most of their fighters.

Rubber tires were burned at Hezbollah headquarters, however, and a Lebanese security official described this as an attempt to mask traces of foreign hostages.

Extremist Shia factions are believed to have seized most of the 26 foreigners held hostage in Lebanon, eight of whom are Americans.

Hezbollah headquarters declined to make an immediate comment on the clash with the Syrians. Spokesmen at the Syrian military headquarters in West Beirut’s Beaurivage Hotel were not available for comment.

Sources with pro-Syrian militias said the Syrians attacked when their troops came under fire from a Hezbollah military center.

Could Strain Iran Ties

The clash was the most serious confrontation involving the Syrians since they intervened Sunday to quell factional fighting in Beirut’s Muslim sector. It could strain relations between Iran and Syria, which is the strongest Arab ally of the Persian nation in its 6 1/2-year-old war with Arab Iraq.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin warned Syria on Tuesday that Israel would exercise “freedom of action” to protect its security.

But he said Israel has no plans to intervene against the deployment of Syrian forces in Beirut.

“We condemn the deepening of the Syrian army’s involvement and its spread to Beirut,” Rabin said in a 10-minute address to Parliament. “But the guidepost to our policy is to watch the intentions and actions of the Syrian army.”

“We will maintain freedom of action to ensure our security, and I stress, our security along our northern border” with Lebanon, he added. “I have reason to believe that the Syrians know our criterion (for action) is only our security.”

Shultz Comments

In Washington, Secretary of State George P. Shultz told a congressional committee that it would be a “positive development” if Syrian troops brought order to Beirut, United Press International reported.

Earlier Tuesday, Syrian foot patrols entering West Beirut’s battle zone to occupy Druze and Shia militia strongholds killed three Druze militiamen who refused to obey an order to halt.

Police said the three fled when a Syrian patrol ordered them to halt, and “Syrian soldiers chased them, killed all three and resumed their search for armed men in the neighborhood.”

Police would not identify the victims, all apparently in their early 20s, but several witnesses said they were members of Walid Jumblatt’s Druze militia.

The rival Druze and Shia forces, who had battled for control of West Beirut, pulled out of most positions ahead of the Syrian soldiers.

Thousands of Syrian soldiers and 100 tanks moved into Beirut’s Muslim sector Sunday to end a weeklong battle between a Druze-Communist alliance and the Shias in which at least 300 people were reported killed and 1,300 wounded. Lebanon’s Muslim leaders asked Syria to stop the battle for control of West Beirut.

Over 7,000 Syrian Troops

The size of the intervention force originally was estimated at 4,000 men, but Syrian military sources said Tuesday it consisted of two armored and mechanized brigades totaling 6,400 men, backed by an 800-member Special Forces paratroop battalion.

President Hafez Assad of Syria, Lebanon’s main power broker, keeps 25,000 soldiers in the eastern and northern parts of the country. His government has supported all factions involved in the West Beirut battle.

In the southern port of Sidon, 25 miles south of Beirut, unidentified assassins shot and killed two ranking Communists. Twelve members of the pro-Moscow Lebanese Communist Party have been slain in south Lebanon in the past nine days.