Syrians in South Lebanon to End Fight for Camps

Syria today dispatched troops along the coast road to the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, a move the military said was aimed at ending the 23-month war for control of Palestinian refugee camps.

It was the farthest south Syria has sent its troops since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Officials at the Syrian command in Beirut said 120 Syrian paratroopers were deployed along a 22-mile stretch of the coastal highway extending from Beirut to the Awali River on Sidon’s northern outskirts.

The Syrian force is part of a 7,500-man contingent that entered Muslim West Beirut on Feb. 22 to halt factional fighting. The Syrians since have closed militia offices in West Beirut and intervened to ease a 5-month-old siege of two Palestinian refugee camps by Shia Amal militiamen.

Syrian military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said today’s deployment was intended to speed the withdrawal of Palestinian guerrillas from the highlands captured from Amal on Nov. 24.

Condition for Lifting Siege

Amal has been demanding the withdrawal as a condition for lifting its siege of Beirut’s Chatilla and Borj el Brajne refugee camps.

The capture of the heights east of Sidon by Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas ignited the latest round in the PLO-Amal war for the control of refugee camps in Beirut and south Lebanon. More than 1,600 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in May, 1985.

Police said the Syrians set up a main checkpoint at the Awali River bridge about three miles north of Sidon and six miles from the PLO-held heights.

Reports in the Middle Eastern Press have said Israel has warned that it would not tolerate a Syrian military presence south of the Awali, calling the river an “Israeli red line.”

The river is about 37 miles north of the Israeli border.