U.S. and British Citizens Advised to Leave Lebanon

BEIRUT — The U.S. and British embassies Friday advised their citizens to leave strife-torn Lebanon, and a leading Beirut newspaper predicted a Syrian assault on the Christian enclave defended by Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun’s army units.

The U.S. Embassy said it is “not in a position to arrange transportation of citizens from Lebanon,” but Americans were “strongly advised to depart Lebanon immediately . . . because of the threat posed by the security situation.”

An American official at the embassy said there are “several hundred Americans in Lebanon, most of them dual nationals.” About 25 embassy employees are believed to remain in Lebanon.

Christian radio stations broadcast a statement from the British Embassy advising the remaining Britons, believed to number about 100, to leave Lebanon “before the sea shuttle service . . . stops anew.”

Ferry Service Resumed

Ferry service between Lebanon and Cyprus, suspended during the heaviest fighting of the last two months, resumed last week.

Since March 14, Beirut has been devastated by artillery duels between Aoun’s forces and a Muslim alliance of Syrian troops and Druze militiamen that have killed more than 350 people and wounded nearly 1,400 by police count.

The embassies’ warnings coincided with a prediction by the daily An-Nahar that the Syrians will attack to try to oust Aoun, who heads the Christian Cabinet in Lebanon’s divided government and commands about 20,000 troops. Syria has about 40,000 soldiers in Lebanon under a 1976 peacekeeping mandate from the Arab League.

An-Nahar analyst Sarkis Naaoum said Syria “will not permit” the Arab League to work out a settlement leaving Aoun in charge of the enclave northeast of Beirut, where most of Lebanon’s Christians live. The league is to meet next week in Morocco. As a result of this stand, Naaoum predicted “a serious military escalation” with the aim “to bring Aoun down.”

Repeated efforts by the Arab League to implement a truce it called April 28 have failed.

A spokesman for Aoun’s command said Christian troops were exchanging machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades with Syrians and their allies at Souk el Gharb southeast of Beirut. No casualties were reported.