40 Lebanese, 3 Israelis Die as Militia Destroys Village

More than 40 Lebanese guerrillas and three Israeli soldiers were killed today at the end of a 48-hour raid when an Israeli incursion force captured and destroyed the south Lebanese village of Maidoun, the army said.

Under a barrage of artillery fire, a mechanized Israeli column stormed the village, just three miles from Syrian front-line forces in Lebanon.

Seventeen Israeli soldiers were wounded.

Other guerrillas of the radical Shia Muslim Hezbollah movement and the mainstream Shia movement Amal were believed buried under the wreckage of bulldozed houses, security sources said.

A senior Israeli officer said the operation in Lebanon was over and Israeli forces were withdrawing to their bases.

A Reuters correspondent at the border saw tanks and armored vehicles, followed by jeeps and troop carriers, returning to Israel at a crossroads known as Tank Junction at the foot of the Hermon mountain range.

During the 48-hour search-and-destroy operation, an Israeli force estimated by U.N. observers at more than 1,500 men combed rugged terrain north of the Israeli-Lebanese border and raided several villages in the hunt for Palestinian and Shia gunmen.

Door-to-Door Searches

An Israel Radio reporter with the troops said the fighting continued for several hours as soldiers conducted door-to-door searches in Maidoun.

A Cobra helicopter gunship fired rockets to silence a Lebanese Army artillery unit that shelled the Israeli force and killed one of the three Israeli soldiers, he said.

After the fighting militiamen of Israel’s South Lebanon Army allies demolished with bulldozers all the buildings still standing in Maidoun, military sources said.

They said civilians had long deserted the village, which was heavily fortified by gunmen of the Hezbollah (Party of God).

U.N. observers said Israeli artillery poured more than 1,000 shells into Maidoun overnight and Cobra attack helicopters fired on guerrillas fleeing the village.