Israel Raid Into Lebanon Ends in Daring Rescue

JERUSALEM — Israeli jets bombed and strafed Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon on Friday in a dramatic rescue of four trapped commandos who were part of an overnight military operation against a guerrilla camp only 10 miles south of Beirut.

The operation, a combined land, sea and air assault against the base camp, was the deepest incursion by an Israeli force into Lebanon since the invasion of 1982. The battle between the Israeli troops and the Palestinians raged for more than nine hours, well into the morning, as the Israelis apparently encountered stiffer opposition than expected.

Aimed at Guerrilla Leader?

An Israeli military spokesman would not comment on speculation that the force had hoped to capture Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. The base is one of the front’s positions.

Jibril, whose pro-Syrian group claimed responsibility for a Nov. 25, 1987, hang-glider attack on northern Israel in which six Israeli soldiers were killed, told reporters at a news conference that Israeli paratroopers Friday had intended to blow up the base with “booby-trapped dogs.” His guerrillas displayed two dead Dobermans with about 20 pounds of explosives strapped to their bodies.

“They wanted to explode this position with explosives fastened to dogs, but the guards shot them dead . . . ,” he said.

At the Israeli Defense Ministry, a spokeswoman said, “Yes, we have heard about the report, and our answer is no comment.”

It was after dawn Friday when the search planes found the four-man unit, which at first was feared captured. Two Cobra helicopter gunships flew to their position, and the soldiers held onto a helicopter’s skids and were lifted to safety and deposited on waiting warships, in what was described by Israeli Radio as a “daring rescue operation.”

Reports from Lebanon said that at least a dozen guerrillas were killed during the overnight battle, while the Israelis put the Palestinian deaths at about 20, including a senior officer, Abu Jamil. An Israeli officer, believed to be the ground commander, Lt. Col. Amir Meital, was killed and three others were wounded.

Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron, Israel’s military chief of staff, called the operation a success and said the targets were the headquarters and training areas of Jibril’s guerrilla group. The action, Shomron said, showed that anyone “engaged in terrorist attacks is liable to counterattacks--wherever based.”

Deaths Reported

The operation began after 9 p.m. Thursday when an elite unit of the Israeli army landed on the coast near Damour and marched inland toward Naame, 50 miles north of the Israeli border. The unit involved was the reconnaissance battalion of the crack Golani Brigade, which has conducted operations in Lebanon for several years.

When the Israeli force of “several dozen” men reached the guerrilla base, it opened fire first, taking the guerrillas by surprise, according to the official account.

But, in a fire fight lasting more than an hour, Col. Meital was killed and the three soldiers were wounded. The fighting continued near an abandoned Maronite Catholic monastery.

At some point, the four Israeli commandos were cut off from the rest of the force and, as dawn approached, Shomron, who was monitoring the attack from the Defense Ministry in Jerusalem, ordered the rest of the troops to withdraw to the beaches to be picked up by ships. Then the rescue effort began.

Shomron denied early reports from Lebanon that his troops had engaged Syrian army soldiers in the area. The last serious encounter between Israeli and Syrian forces occurred during the 1982 invasion.

During the fighting Friday morning, Beirut airport remained closed and flights were diverted to Damascus, Syria, and Larnaca, Cyprus.

Late Friday, acting Lebanese Premier Salim Hoss told the Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations to register a complaint at “this flagrant Israeli aggression.”

In Brussels, Secretary of State George P. Shultz criticized the attack and said he thought Israel had learned its lesson about sending troops into Lebanon in the invasion six years ago.

And a British Foreign Office spokesman said: “We deplore Israel’s raid into Lebanon. It has exacerbated the cycle of violence in the region.”

Lebanon requested an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting on the Israeli raid, but there was no indication when or if the council would meet. U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said the situation in Lebanon was “extremely dangerous and explosive” and appealed for restraint.

Elsewhere, in the occupied territories, the first anniversary of the intifada --as the ongoing uprising is known in Arabic--was observed in relatively quiet fashion by Palestinians.

Israeli troops were out in force, and no major incidents of violence were reported despite the general strike being observed by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.