3 Gunmen Kill American Missionary Working With Children in Lebanon

Three masked gunmen stormed the home of an American Christian missionary and shot him dead while he was singing prayers with his children, military and security sources said today. Two Lebanese extremist groups claimed responsibility.

Villagers had accused William Robinson, 59, of trying to establish an Israeli settlement in this town in southern Lebanon.

Acquaintances had said Robinson, who was born and raised in Athol, Mass., only wanted to expand his 7-year-old orphanage for handicapped children, located in Israel’s self-declared security zone.

Israel denied that any such settlement was planned, and sent troops to scour the area in search of the killers.

Three masked assailants broke into Robinson’s house Tuesday night while he was singing bedtime prayers with his American wife, four sons and 26 other children from his orphanage, Lebanese security sources told U.N. investigators.

The assailants then tied up Robinson’s wife, Barbara, and sent the children into another room before shooting Robinson three times in the neck and chest, the sources said. The masked men also took $4,000 and some jewelry before fleeing. They also killed his guard dogs.

In Beirut, the Communist Party and the pro-Syrian Lebanese National Resistance Front claimed responsibility for the killing.

“One of our units Tuesday night carried out the death sentence against William Robinson, who was seeking to establish an Israeli settlement on Lebanese territory,” a statement from the front said.

The Communist Party said in its statement that the slaying “brought an end to schemes to plant Jewish settlers in south Lebanon.”

The party and its militia have carried out numerous raids on Israeli targets, including an aborted suicide truck bombing in southern Lebanon on April 21, 1985.

U.S. Embassy officials in Tel Aviv said Robinson had been repeatedly advised of U.S. government policy barring Americans from visiting Lebanon.

Rashaya Foukhar is about eight miles northeast of Israel’s border. The 6- to 10-mile-deep zone was set up to serve as a buffer against raids by guerrillas and is policed by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.

Robinson first entered Lebanon from Israel in 1978 and worked as a technician at a Christian TV station in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun. In 1983, he founded his “Christian Children’s Home” project in Rashaya Foukhar and was caring for 29 handicapped children when he was shot, security sources said.

The victim’s sister, Elnora Coppolino, said Robinson had no political motives for settling in south Lebanon and wanted only to help children victimized by the war.

In a telephone interview from her home in Athol, Coppolino said her brother was a Congregationalist and became interested in missionary work about a decade ago. His work in Lebanon was not affiliated with any particular group, she said.

Earlier this month, 5,000 residents of Rashaya Foukhar petitioned the government of President Elias Hrawi to prevent Robinson from establishing what they called the first “Israeli” settlement on Lebanese soil.