Amal Militiamen Free 3 Irish U.N. Soldiers Abducted in Lebanon

Three Irish soldiers serving with U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon were freed Saturday, a day after their abduction by Muslim extremists.

A U.N. spokesman said the three soldiers are “in good shape and back with their unit” in the village of Tibnin, headquarters for the Irish army unit serving with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The men were rescued by Amal, a Shia Muslim militia friendly to Syria, from a house in the village of Sultaniye, about a mile from Tibnin. The three soldiers had been abducted from Tibnin on Friday.

The kidnapers belong to the Faithful Resistance, a splinter group affiliated with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God. They apparently abducted the soldiers in a move to bargain for the release of four members of their group who were detained by Israeli forces earlier in the week.

Rounded Up Leaders

Amal apparently rounded up the leadership of the Faithful Resistance in southern Lebanon on Friday night and then confronted the kidnapers, seizing another 15 men.

The three soldiers freed Saturday were the second trio of Irish soldiers kidnaped last week. The earlier three were also released soon after being taken prisoner.

In another Saturday development, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual adviser of Hezbollah, announced that he had suspended his efforts to win the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon.

“I have suspended my initiative on behalf of the hostages because it reached a dead end,” Fadlallah was quoted as telling the Beirut newspaper Al Liwa. Fadlallah did not say what his initiative had consisted of nor why it had apparently fizzled out.

Pro-Iranian groups are believed to be holding 15 Westerners, including nine Americans, in Lebanon. They include Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, who was serving with the U.N. Truce Supervisory Organization when he was kidnaped.

On Friday, Peter Winkler, a Swiss working with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Lebanon, was released in the southern port of Sidon after being kidnaped and held hostage for nearly a month.

In Bern, Swiss Foreign Minister Rene Felber disclosed that a Swedish diplomat had negotiated Winkler’s release from the kidnapers, who called themselves the Organization of Socialist Revolutionaries.