Arafat loyalists die in ambush

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 10

Arafat loyalists die in ambush

NZPA-Reuter Damascus All Palestinian guerrilla bases in eastern and northern Lebanon have been besieged by Syrian tanks and main supply routes from Damascus cut off, said the Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman, Mr Yasser Arafat, yesterday. But he said that he still hoped negotiations could bring a reconciliation with the Syrians. His statement came after Syrian-backed Palestinian dissidents ambushed a convoy of 10 cars belonging to Fatah, his main guerrilla group, while en route from Damascus to Tripoli in northern Lebanon. At least 10 people were reported killed or wounded by the Palestinian news agency, Wafa. The convoy was going through the northern Syrian town of Homs, 160 km from the Syrian capital, Damascus. The ambush was the latest in a series of confrontations between Arafat loyalists and his adversaries in Fatah, who are believed to be supplied and financed by Libya and Syria. “We are in contact with the Syrians ... I still have hope,” he said.

“All our bases and offices in the Bekaa and in Tripoli have been besieged by Syrian tanks. “We have not given an order to any of our forces to shoot because we still believe we and our Syrian brothers are in one trench against a common enemy, Israel, and I hope they (the Syrians) will re-evaluate and recalculate their present stand.” But he quickly added that although the mutiny in Fatah has been the worst crisis in the guerrilla ranks since the birth of the Palestinian revolution 18 years ago, he did not think it posed a serious threat to his leadership. “This suggestion is a joke. There are attempts to exaggerate the importance of this story,” he said. Asked to comment on Syria’s denial of any complicity in the continuing feud in his guerrilla ranks, he said, “That’s another joke.” He emphasised that the main highway from Damascus into the Bekaa which the dissidents now control has been under the control of the Syrians since 1976. “The Syrians push their tanks and men toward the

roads and our positions and after they take over the control they bring a few dissidents, maybe 12 to 15, and hand them over the gains and say it’s the dissidents that did it.” Mr Arafat drove to Damascus from Tripoli on the Homs road only five hours before the ambush. The road was his fighters’ last main link between Damascus and Lebanon after his adversaries, supported by Syrian tanks, took control of the main highway from Damascus into the Bekaa on Monday. Mr Arafat disclosed that he had sent a message to the President of Syria, Mr Hafez Assad, asking him to stop supporting the seven-week-old rebellion in Fatah ranks. He said, “yes,” when asked whether the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria were mediating to end the feud in Fatah and straighten out relations between the P.L.O. and Syria. But he refused to disclose the contents of a letter he received on Thursday from the Soviet Communist Party chief, Yuri Andropov, but said that it had been the third such message, dealing with the situation in Lebanon, in 10 days.