Terrorists Warn of Severe Retaliation if U.S. Attacks

Defiant of possible U.S. military action in Lebanon’s hostage crisis, radical Muslim clergymen warned Wednesday that any American strike would be answered with unrestrained retaliation.

Sheik Abbas Musawi, an extremist leader of the fundamentalist, pro-Iranian Hezbollah organization, declared that “America should think a million times before carrying out any foolish action.”

Musawi told a Western news agency in Beirut, “There would be no limits whatsoever to our reprisal.”

Newspapers in Beirut carried reports Wednesday morning of movements by elements of the U.S. 6th Fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, including the departure of the aircraft carrier Coral Sea from the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

Beirut Quiet 2 Days

The newspaper An Nahar said the Christian-Muslim artillery war in the Lebanese capital had been quiet for 48 hours, largely out of concern about U.S. intentions.

The atmosphere of alarm mounted as the deadline approached for the announcement of a time for the threatened killing of American hostage Joseph J. Cicippio. Cicippio’s captors, members of the Revolutionary Justice Organization, announced that his death will be ordered if the Israeli government does not free Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid by 6 p.m. today (8 a.m. PDT).

Obeid, who is a Muslim clergyman and prominent figure in Hezbollah, and two Shiite Muslim followers were abducted Friday in the southern Lebanese town of Jibchit by helicopter-borne Israeli commandos.

On Monday, U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, a hostage for 17 months, was reported hanged by the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, which like the Revolutionary Justice Organization is believed to be a faction of Hezbollah. A videotape of a hanged man, apparently Higgins, was turned over to Beirut journalists as proof of retaliation for Obeid’s abduction.

Cicippio’s captors said a date for his killing would be announced Tuesday, then delayed the decision for 48 hours in response to appeals for his life, including an emotional plea by his Lebanese Muslim wife.

On Wednesday, Sheik Ahmed Taleb, like Obeid a Shiite clergyman from Jibchit, called on Hezbollah extremists holding Cicippio and seven other American hostages to kill them all if Obeid is not freed by the Israelis.

“It is essential to continue killing hostages,” Taleb told a Lebanese reporter. “Other Israeli weak points could be hit. . . . Let America know that we have many youths who are ready to launch suicide attacks.”

The threat by Taleb, who is not a major figure in Hezbollah, stood in contrast to the silence of the fundamentalists’ spiritual leader, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

Reports in Beirut and elsewhere Wednesday suggested that Iranian leaders, including Hashemi Rafsanjani, who will be installed today as Iran’s new president, have urged caution by Hezbollah and its terrorist factions, which have been nurtured in the past by hard-line Iranian followers of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Shevardnadze in Tehran

According to a report by the Soviet news agency Tass, Rafsanjani discussed the crisis Tuesday in a meeting in Tehran with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze.

Meanwhile, U.N. Undersecretary Marrack Goulding arrived in southern Lebanon via Israel to begin an investigation into Higgins’ fate and--if he has been killed--to try to recover the body. The Marine officer was serving with a U.N. observer force in the area when he was abducted outside the city of Tyre.

Goulding met with officials of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon at their headquarters in Naqoura. Timur Goksel, the U.N. peace force spokesman, said Goulding had no set itinerary and that it was not known whether he would go to Beirut.