Israeli Planes Attack Guerrilla Bases in Lebanon

Israeli warplanes Monday twice attacked Palestinian bases near the port city of Sidon that were used as “organization points” for assaults on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, police and Israel’s army said.

Lebanese police said the attacks killed one person and wounded three.

The jets attacked bases used by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, near the village of Kfar Jarah, four miles east of Sidon, a military statement said.

It said the bases were destroyed and all the aircraft returned safely from the first attack, about 35 miles north of Israel’s border. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel of the second attack.

In the first assault, four Israeli fighter-bombers fired eight rockets at the installations, police said. The guerrillas immediately closed all roads leading to the bases.

Thirty minutes later, another formation of Israeli fighter-bombers hit the bases “as the guerrillas were trying to evacuate their casualties,” said a police spokesman who refused to be named.

Monday’s raids brought to six the number of Israeli air strikes against guerrilla targets in Lebanon this year. Israel usually launches the air strikes in retaliation for guerrilla raids.

The army said the Democratic Front was responsible for a series of attacks on Israeli troops, including an incident Wednesday in which four guerrillas tried to infiltrate Israel’s self-designated “security zone” in southern Lebanon. One guerrilla was killed and three captured in that incident.