Glass’ Kidnapers Reported to Be Seeking a Deal

Kidnapers of U.S. reporter Charles Glass and two others were reported Friday trying to strike a deal for Glass’ release as gunfire erupted in an area where captive foreigners are held. An Iranian also was reported abducted.

But Syrian officials and Lebanese Defense Minister Adel Osseiran, whose son, Ali, was kidnaped along with Glass, denied there had been any contact with the abductors.

Gunmen seized Glass, a 36-year-old native of Los Angeles, as he drove through a Shia Muslim district south of Beirut on Wednesday. Grabbed with Glass and Ali Osseiran was a policeman escorting them.

“The kidnapers are known,” a source close to Syrian forces in Lebanon said. “Their people came to us to sound out the situation.”

Street battles erupted in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday evening, leaving at least four wounded, witnesses said.

Police said the fighting, involving rocket and machine-gun fire, was between the Shia Amal militia and the Mikdad clan.

The magazine As Shiraa, meanwhile, said that an Iranian actively opposed to kidnaping was recently abducted in Beirut by a powerful ruling faction in Tehran.

It said Mohammed Khatimi had been sent on a special mission to Beirut and apparently had been working against the practice of kidnaping when he fell victim to a power struggle in Iran.