Word: syrians
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This time, however, the troops fanning out in the city represented none of the forces that have tried to impose their order on West Beirut in the past six years. They were not Israeli, Syrian or Palestinian. Instead, they were from the 22,000-strong Lebanese army, which since the 1975-76 civil war has rarely dared appear in West Beirut. Last week's security sweep was the most visible indication yet that the government of newly elected President Amin Gemayel is intent upon asserting its authority over the capital...
Paradoxically, another encouraging sign developed last week out of an act of violence. Unidentified gunmen ambushed an Israeli bus only six miles southeast of Beirut on the main highway to Damascus, killing six Israeli soldiers and wounding 22. The next morning, in apparent retaliation, Israeli jets destroyed a Syrian S A-9 truck-mounted missile battery at Dar al Baideh, 20 miles east of Beirut...
...Israeli standards, that response was relatively mild. Israeli officials, who in the past have been quick to show that any provocation would invite massive retaliation, said that they attacked the site because they will not tolerate the presence of any Syrian antiaircraft missiles in Lebanon, not because of the ambush. The deliberately low-key response reflected what seems to be a subtle but significant change in Israeli policy. The limited action, many Israelis felt, stemmed from the massacres in the Palestinian camps in Beirut three weeks ago when Christian Lebanese forces slaughtered at least 400 people. The evidence that some...
...party headquarters. He was described only as someone in contact with "foreign quarters." There were no such leads, however, in the death last week of PL.O. Chief of Staff Saad Sayel, better known as Abu Walid. He was killed by some 30 gunmen while inspecting guerrilla units in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley...
...most urgent task, in the view of nearly everyone, is the withdrawal of all foreign armies from Lebanon. Many of the officials interviewed expressed confidence that an agreement could be reached before the end of the year. The Syrians, who have had an army in Lebanon since 1976, appear willing to accept their own withdrawal as the price for the pullout of Israeli forces, which are poised only about 20 miles from the Syrian capital of Damascus. Jerusalem, for its part, is anxious to avoid the political and economic burdens of a prolonged occupation in Lebanon. The main difficulty...