Ferry Shelled Off Lebanon; One Killed : Mideast: 15 others are wounded. A Syrian warship may have shot up the Cypriot vessel.

An unidentified warship Saturday shot up a seagoing ferry off the coast of troubled Lebanon, killing one passenger and wounding at least 15.

Twelve of the casualties were hoisted from the deck of the Baroness M by British Royal Air Force helicopters and flown to hospitals in Larnaca, Cyprus, where the ferry is based. Four were reported in critical condition.

The Baroness M was inbound for the Christian port of Juniyah when the predawn attack occurred. Lloyd’s Shipping Intelligence, a naval monitoring service, logged a 5:45 a.m. message from the ferry’s radio reporting, “I have been attacked and bombed by a Syrian warship, and I am on fire.”

However, Cypriot officials, who examined the ship and interviewed crew members when it docked at Larnaca six hours later, said the identity of the attacker was not certain. The ferry was more than 20 miles off Juniyah when it was shelled, beyond the range of land-based artillery.

The ship, which can carry more than 1,000 passengers, held only 64 on its aborted run to Juniyah. Members of the 52-member crew of the Greek-owned vessel told reporters at Larnaca that almost all of the passengers were Lebanese, many of them returning home to retrieve relatives caught in the brutal fighting between Christian factions in East Beirut.

Cypriot police officials identified the dead passenger as Nasser abu Nasr, 26, who was seated in the ship’s bar when a shell crashed through the superstructure. Most of the victims were in the lounge area and suffered burns and shrapnel wounds. The rescue helicopters, operating from the British Akrotiri base west of Larnaca, left medical personnel aboard the ferry for the return run to Cyprus. The vessel never reached Juniyah.

Two Cyprus-based ferries, the Baroness M and the Sunny Boat, have been making the 120-mile run from Larnaca to Juniyah in recent months, although service has been irregular because of fighting around the terminal area in East Beirut. It’s an overnight trip, and the ferries dock in the morning.

Andreas Michaeliks, third officer of the Baroness M, told a reporter that a warning shot was fired across the ship’s course about 4 a.m., and the captain changed direction. Shortly later, he said, a salvo of shells hit the ship, then another.

The 3,987-ton ferry was hit between 18 to 20 times, all on the starboard side, Cypriot officials said. Some of the holes were described as up to 10 inches in diameter, but there was no major damage and the ferry was never in danger of sinking.

Syrian warships are a common sight to ferry passengers headed for Juniyah, and Israeli gunboats also patrol the Lebanese coast. Shortly after interfactional fighting among the Christian forces broke out on Jan. 31, four gunboats of the minuscule Lebanese navy, loyal to Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, reportedly left Juniyah to escape falling into the hands of the rival Lebanese Forces militia.