Palestinians Storm Syrian Base to Free Comrades

Palestinian guerrillas attacked a Syrian base in south Lebanon on Thursday and freed 15 detained comrades in a two-hour foray in which at least 13 people were killed, police reported.

Syrian troops and armor massed along the Awwali River, on the northern edge of Sidon, apparently preparing for a retaliatory strike across the line beyond which Israel has said it will not tolerate Syrian military presence.

Police said about 150 fighters from Fatah, the mainstream guerrilla faction led by Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, stormed and ransacked the Syrian military intelligence headquarters for south Lebanon.

Bullet scars and smoke-blackened shell pocks dotted the three-story headquarters. The blown-off tin roof of a fruit stall lay next to the building, and hundreds of oranges, apparently spilled during the attack, covered the alleyway.

The fighters, based in the Ein el Hilwa refugee camp in Sidon, traveled three miles north and crossed the Awwali River to raid the headquarters on the coastal highway. The river is 40 miles north of the Israeli border and 25 south of Beirut.

The guerrillas used jeep-mounted 107-millimeter recoilless guns, shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles, said police and Palestinian sources in Sidon.

A statement from PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, did not deny Fatah’s involvement, but condemned the attack.

“It is incumbent on the Palestinian leadership to reaffirm that it condemns totally such acts and that it immediately gave instructions for the opening of an investigation in collaboration with the forces present in Sidon . . . to identify the authors and commanders of this attack,” it said.

A police source said privately the raid might have been planned and executed, without Arafat’s prior consent, by local Fatah commanders seeking the release of their comrades.