The World - News from May 14, 1987

Syrian troops fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a suspicious-looking auto in West Beirut, detonating a car bomb, and the resulting explosion killed one of their soldiers and wounded two others, police and witnesses said. Unconfirmed radio reports said several civilians also were injured, but police said this was unlikely because the Syrians had sealed off the area, near one of their military checkpoints. No group claimed responsibility for the car bomb. However, it was seen as another attempt to discredit the Syrian effort to pacify the Muslim sector of the Lebanese capital. A car bomb near Syrian military headquarters killed eight people March 28.