Arafat bases attacked

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 10

Arafat bases attacked

NZPA-Reuter Beirut A Palestinian guerrilla mutiny against the P.L.O.’s leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, has flared again just as there seemed to be some prospect that Arab mediation might cool things down. “They are closing all the roads to negotiation,” said Mr Arafat’s military deputy, Khalil Wazir, referring to anti-Arafat mutineers who, he alleged, had renewed attacks on loyalist bases yesterday in the Syrian-con-trolled Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. A statement by Arafat loyalists, issued by the

Palestine Liberation Organisation’s news agency, Wafa, said that 15 of their men had been killed and 20 wounded in the fighting. The Arafat camp said that, as Syrian tanks pinned loyalists down, guerrillas of the Syrian-backed Saiqa movement and the Libyanbacked Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineGeneral Command had joined in on the dissident side. The violence occurred on the day Saudi Arabia declared support for Mr Arafat as leader of the P.L.O. and after statements

by Syria, accused by Mr Arafat of backing the revolt, that it wanted a peaceful resolution of the seven-week-old mutiny. Mr Arafat’s side again accused Syria of helping the dissidents of his Fatah commando movement. That was denied in Damascus by a dissident spokesman. He also said that Arafat loyalists had started the clashes. After being expelled from Syria and Syrian-held territory on Friday Mr Arafat is in Algiers and trying to muster pan-Arab support, far from the scene of the clashes.