Syrians Find No Hostages as They Enter Beirut Slums

Several hundred Syrian soldiers moved into the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday, halting a pro-Iranian militia group’s effort to seize the area but not finding any Western hostages believed to be held there.

Heavy fighting raged through the night in the congested slums south of Beirut and did not stop until just before the Syrian security plan, which had been disclosed Thursday, started to take effect about noon.

Syrian troops in cranberry-colored, special-forces camouflage uniforms entered the suburbs on foot and in three groups. A smaller contingent of Lebanese policemen, in slate-gray uniforms and carrying U.S.-made rifles, followed cautiously in the Syrians’ wake.

The Syrian commanders were accompanied by officials of the two warring militia groups in the area: the pro-Syrian Amal, which has taken a severe beating in the fighting, and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God.

Nearly 300 people have been killed in the fighting since May 6, with nearly 1,000 others wounded.

The Syrians appeared to be heavily armed, but because of their relatively small numbers, they constitute at best a token force in comparison to the estimated 6,000 Hezbollah fighters, who are holed up in the 14-square-mile sprawl of the suburbs.

“It’s the beginning of our friendly relations,” Abdul Hadi Hamadi, a Hezbollah official, told the Syrian commander, Lt. Col. Emir Tali.

Tali said the Syrians intend to establish five to 10 control points within the first few hours and would add others if necessary.

“It’s the hottest spots at the start,” he said.

The mood of the day was upbeat, in sharp contrast to what it had been only a few hours earlier after gunmen presumably loyal to Hezbollah tried to assassinate Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan, the head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, as he left a meeting in the suburbs.

The gunmen fired more than 100 rounds of small-arms fire into Kenaan’s armored limousine, but he and three other high-ranking Syrian officers managed to get away, even though all four tires of the car had been shot out.

As the deployment went ahead, the Syrians moved cautiously through the ruined streets of two neighborhoods, Ghobeiri, an Amal stronghold that had been captured two days earlier by Hezbollah, and Amal-controlled Chiyah.

Worst in 14 Years

Residents of Ghobeiri described the Hezbollah-Amal fighting as the worst in the 14 years of Lebanon’s civil war. They said rocket-propelled grenades and bazooka and mortar projectiles had been fired into the densely populated streets.

The pavement was littered with dozens of smashed and overturned cars and trucks. In most apartment buildings, the glass had been blown out of the windows, and shops had been ransacked.

A unexploded grenade lay in the center of a street until a soldier placed a spare tire over it to warn passers-by. A child’s doll lay nearby, its arms and legs wound with tiny bandages apparently applied by its owner.

As the Syrians moved through the streets, a woman poured a bowl of rice from a second-floor balcony to celebrate the end of the fighting. Much of the area seemed to be deserted; as many as half of the estimated 1 million residents may have fled.

When the soldiers eliminated the dividing line between the Amal and Hezbollah areas of control--a fence of blankets and sheets draped on a laundry line across the road--a large group of militiamen could be seen retreating through the rear entrance of a nearby garage.

Hostages Believed in Area

The 18 foreign hostages still held in Lebanon are believed to be in makeshift prisons in Hezbollah-controlled areas of the suburbs.

A Western diplomat in Damascus said the security arrangements may have included an agreement between Syria and Hezbollah to leave one area controlled by the fundamentalists--the neighborhood of Bir al-Abed--outside of the area of Syrian deployment. Bir al-Abed is believed to be one of the areas where the hostages were held.

The Syrian decision to move troops into the area had raised hopes for the hostages’ quick release, but Syrian officials emphasized Friday that the security operation was just the first step in the process leading to freedom. They said the Western nations will have to open a political dialogue with the abductors before anyone is freed.

Among the hostages are nine Americans, including some who have been held for more than three years.

Last year, Syrian forces moved into the Muslim sector of Beirut proper, and Friday’s deployment put Syria in a position of supervision over all of greater Beirut. It represents a significant political victory for Syria’s President Hafez Assad, who has forced Iran to accept his supremacy in Lebanese matters.

Close Strategic Relationship

Syria and Iran have a close strategic relationship, largely in matters concerning the Persian Gulf, but they have differed in the past over the shape of a future Lebanese government. The Syrians want a multiconfessional system that will take into account the various Muslim and Christian sects, and Iran wants an Islamic republic on the model of that established in Tehran by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In February, Amal fighters supported by Syria wiped out Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, insisting that only Amal had the responsibility for patrolling the area along Israel’s northern border.

But Hezbollah had taken the upper hand in the fighting in Beirut in the past two weeks and by Thursday had seized all but one of Amal’s strongholds and was threatening to destroy Syria’s principal military ally in Lebanon.

The cease-fire was negotiated by Assad and a delegation from Hezbollah that traveled to the northern port of Latakia for an unprecedented meeting with the Syrian leader. Details of the security arrangements have not yet been made public.

Aim to Alter Image

The Syrians, who in recent months have been anxious to project a more moderate image to the world, took the unusual step of escorting a large contingent of American and British journalists to Beirut to witness the move in the southern suburbs.

The arrival of a large group of obvious foreigners, in a country most Westerners have avoided because of the threat of abduction, appeared to generate almost as much interest in the beleaguered suburbs as the arrival of the Syrian troops.

The center of attention was a hapless British journalist, apparently the day’s only casualty. The front of his shirt was soaked with blood from a head wound suffered when a Syrian taxi filled with newsmen plunged over an embankment on the drive to Beirut.