News

Garber Announces Advisory Committee for Harvard Law School Dean Search

News

First Harvard Prize Book in Kosovo Established by Harvard Alumni

News

Ryan Murdock ’25 Remembered as Dedicated Advocate and Caring Friend

News

Harvard Faculty Appeal Temporary Suspensions From Widener Library

News

Man Who Managed Clients for High-End Cambridge Brothel Network Pleads Guilty

Israeli Warplanes Hit Lebanese PLO Bases

Retaliate for Wednesday's Attack on the Wailing Wall

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

SIDON, Lebanon--A missile destroyed an Israeli warplane during raids on Palestinian guerrilla bases near this ancient port yesterday, the day after a bloody grenade attack in Jerusalem.

Journalists saw the plane explode after the missile struck and crash into a valley four miles southeast of Sidon, and some reporters said the wreckage still smoldered 90 minutes later. One of the two pilots was reported taken prisoner and the other was reported killed.

It was the first Israeli plane lost over Lebanon in three years.

State-run Beirut radio said bombs and rockets killed four people and wounded 10 at the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp on the city's southeastern outskirts.

Israel's military command still had not commented hours later either on the 40-minute attack on Palestinian targets or the loss of the U.S.-built Phantom F-4E.

A Shiite Moslem militia commander said the two pilots bailed out and landed in an olive grove, one alive and one dead. Abu Jamil Ghaddar of the Amal militia said the survivor was captured in the grove between Siroubieh and Anqoun, suburbs of this city 25 miles south of Beirut.

Guerrillas brought the Phantom down with a shoulder-fired Soviet Strella missile at 4:25 p.m., 35 minutes after the onset of Israel's 13th air attack into Lebanon this year, a police spokesman said. He withheld his name in keeping with government regulations.

More jets arrived just before nightfall and strafed the area where the pilots landed. Ghaddar said five of his militiamen were wounded.

Witnesses said four jets, Phantoms and Israeli-built Kfirs, flew in from the Mediterranean and made three bomb and rocket runs on the guerrilla positions starting at 3:50 p.m.

Israeli pilots released red balloons to deflect the scores of Strellas that streaked toward them.

Black smoke hung over Mieh Mieh. Fire engines and ambulances raced in from Sidon and Ein el-Hilweh, another Palestinian camp nearby.

The warplanes hit Mieh Mieh less than 24 hours after two grenades were hurled into a crowd of Israeli army recuits and their families near the sacred Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, killing one person and wounding 69.

Claims of responsibility for the Jerusalem attack came from five groups, including the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Israel has lost three other planes in Lebanon since its invasion of June 1982:

--June 6, 1982, during a bombing attack about eight miles north of the Israeli border. The pilot was captured by the PLO.

--July 24, 1982, hit by a Syrian SAM-8 ground-to-air missile during an Israeli attack on Syrian batteries in the Bekaa Valley. The two Israeli pilots were captured.

--Nov. 20, 1983, during a raid on Palestinian guerrilla targets in the Chouf Mountains. Lebanese army soldiers captured the pilot.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags