The World - News from March 6, 1988

A kidnaped British relief official and his Syrian aide are in the hands of the Palestinian guerrilla group led by wanted terrorist Abu Nidal, Lebanese security officials said. A police spokesman said Peter Coleridge, 44, and Omar Traboulsi, 31, were being held by the Revolutionary Council of Fatah. But a spokesman for Abu Nidal’s group said, “We’re not involved in the matter.” Coleridge, Middle East coordinator for the British Oxfam charity organization, and his aide disappeared while visiting the sprawling Ein el Hilwa refugee camp. Sunni Muslim militia leader Mustafa Saad urged “all foreigners, Easterners and Westerners alike, to leave Lebanon” because their safety cannot be ensured.