Lebanese Army Overruns Palestinian Strongholds

The Lebanese army used heavy tank fire to force Palestinian guerrillas out of their last strongholds in the Sidon area Tuesday, gaining control of the volatile area after a two-day push.

By late afternoon, five villages held by the Palestinians since 1985--Ein el Delb, Baissour, Jensnaya, Miye ou Miye and Kraya--were under government control.

Some 6,000 troops led by 700 commandos took part in the daylong offensive. By nightfall, hospital sources were reporting that the fighting had left 19 dead and 58 wounded. Of the dead, 10 were described as Palestinian guerrillas and five as civilians; the rest were Lebanese soldiers.

The five villages are perched above two Palestinian camps, and their control has been considered vital in maintaining security for the camps.

Last December, the army began deploying in areas of the country held by Lebanon’s long-warring militias, with no resistance; the only casualties sustained were from accidents.

The Sidon area, 25 miles south of Beirut, has been billed as the biggest challenge in the government’s plan to reassert control because of the presence of 5,000 Palestinian fighters, most of them allied with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat has argued that his fighters are not a militia but a resistance force opposing the Israeli presence in southern Lebanon, and thus should not have to give up their territory to the army.

Tuesday’s battles echoed over the ridges east of Sidon that stretch toward the mountain town of Jezzine, where Israel and its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, maintain bases.

To guard its volatile northern border, Israel maintains what it calls a security zone in southern Lebanon guarded by the militia and refuses to leave southern Lebanon unless the Lebanese government can guarantee it a border free from guerrilla attacks.

Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Murr has said the army will not enter the Palestinian camps. But memories of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which left the camp at Ein el Hilwa leveled, loom large in the fears of the 65,000 Palestinians who live in the two camps near Sidon.

At midday Tuesday, Zeid Wehbeh, the senior PLO representative in Lebanon, called for a cease-fire and talks with the government. But the sound of tank and machine-gun fire continued until late afternoon, when a government spokesman announced that the army had taken control of the villages.