Israeli, S. Lebanon Troops Kill 2 Arab Guerrillas

Israeli troops and militiamen of the South Lebanon Army on Sunday killed two Palestinian guerrillas and captured two others in a shoot-out in southern Lebanon, an army spokesman said.

The patrol spotted four guerrillas before dawn inside Israel’s self-proclaimed security zone near the village of Marjayoun, a few miles north of the Israeli border, and opened fire. There were no reported casualties among the Israeli or Lebanese troops.

“A preliminary investigation established that the terrorists intended to carry out an attack on a northern settlement to kill Israelis,” the army spokesman said, adding that the guerrillas carried Soviet-made Kalashnikov assault rifles, a grenade launcher, two American-made anti-tank rockets, wire cutters and explosives.

Iran-Made Explosives Reported

An eyewitness said the guerrillas who were killed carried white plastic bags filled with plastic explosives made in Iran and wore red headbands. On the headbands were written Allahu Akbar (Arabic for God is great) as well as slogans in Persian.

The Israeli army spokesman said the military is investigating the report.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said in a statement released in Beirut that a guerrilla squad consisting of rebels from the PFLP and the Palestine Liberation Front had slipped into northern Israel early Sunday and engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli troops.

However, security sources said the guerrillas who were ambushed by the soldiers near Marjayoun were believed to be the same group the PFLP mentioned as having crossed the border.

During the ambush, guerrillas fired several Soviet-made Katyusha rockets into the northern Israeli settlement of Metulla, the first such attack in a year.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the shelling and said an 8-month-old baby was slightly wounded by flying glass after one of the rockets exploded outside his house.

The PFLP and the Palestine Liberation Front both claimed responsibility for the attack.

In other developments, the hand of a 26-year-old Jewish settler in the village of Brakh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was blown off when he picked up a booby-trapped Israeli flag on which a Nazi swastika was painted, state-run Israeli Radio said.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, soldiers shot and wounded 16 Palestinians in clashes with stone-throwing youths in four refugee camps and in Gaza City, Arab reports said. The army confirmed two wounded and said it was checking the other reports.