S. Lebanon Combat Blamed on Sponsors

With the struggle for power in Lebanon stalemated in Beirut, fighting between rival Muslim militias has scorched a string of strategic villages in the rocky hill country of the south.

On Thursday, guerrillas of the pro-Syrian Amal militia and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah (Party of God) again traded machine-gun and rocket fire in a conflict that has taken 72 lives and wounded more than 250 since it erupted Dec. 23.

Lebanese analysts attribute the bitter battles to the Shiite militias’ outside sponsors, which are at odds over the U.S.-backed Arab League peace initiative in the war-torn country. Last week’s restoration of diplomatic ties between Syria and Egypt is also a complicating factor as Iran continues to pursue a political hard line on the Arab-Israeli issue while Cairo promotes moderation.

Now, another player has entered the struggle in southern Lebanon. About 300 Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization were deployed Wednesday on a hill outside the village of Kfar Hatta, between the two Shiite militia forces, in an apparent bid to prevent the fighting from spreading to the big Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el Hilwa and Miye ou Miye outside the southern port of Sidon.

“Our deployment has no other political or military goals” beyond stopping the fighting, said Zaid Wehbeh, Arafat’s top deputy in Lebanon.

But combat among Shiite militias and Palestinians has pulsed repeatedly through Beirut and southern Lebanon, and this outbreak, the heaviest in years, has continued in defiance of appeals for a truce.

On Tuesday, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Shiite spiritual leader, condemned the conflict, which mocks a peace plan worked out last January by Amal and Hezbollah leaders summoned to Tehran, the Iranian capital. At stake is the control of Lebanon’s estimated 1 million Shiites, who gained little from last September’s Arab League peace accord, which has been largely blunted by the resistance of Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, the Christian strongman.

Amal leader Nabih Berri, in a statement published Thursday in Beirut newspapers, complained that Syria had stopped supplying his militia when the fighting in the south broke out two weeks ago.

“Syria cut off arms supplies to Amal after the first shot was fired in this war,” the statement said. “I am being killed by Iranian bullets and rifles (in the hands of the rival Hezbollah).”

The fighting is taking place in Iqlim el Tufah, literally “Apple Region,” an area of poor Shiite villages stretching from the Sidon area southeasterly toward the Israeli border. Amal has been the traditional power in the south, but Hezbollah and the Palestinians both covet control of the region because of the access it provides for guerrilla operations against the Israelis in their security zone north of the border.

Hezbollah forces seized control of five villages from Amal militiamen in the first 10 days of fighting. Last week, a cease-fire was proclaimed by Mohammed Ali Besharati, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, but it broke down when Hezbollah fighters refused to withdraw from the captured villages.