Word: tyre
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Last week, by official count, 70% of the Lebanese refugees were back in the villages and towns from which they had fled during the Israeli invasion two months ago. "UNIFIL has given us back our home life," says Ahmed Majzoub, a shopkeeper in the city of Tyre. "Now we don't wake up wondering how much chance we will have to live through...
...both sides of the Litani seemed particularly bitter about the French troops. 'They came in thinking this was Algeria," complained a young commander of the P.F.L.P., "and that they could knock people around as they pleased." For their part, the French, whose headquarters are just south of Tyre but who are not permitted by the Palestinians to enter the city itself, spoke bitterly about what they called "the lies" being spread about them. Clearly, the French paratroopers have been stunned by the serious wounding of their commander, Colonel Jean-Germain Salvan, in a fight with a Palestinian faction earlier...
...Tyre pocket, an area along the coastal plains of southern Lebanon that lies between the Israeli line and the Litani, is under the control of the Palestinians. This became clear when, in response to a request to visit Tyre, a U.N. liaison officer warned: "You could try it, but you might be arrested. They would arrest anyone from Israel." Palestinian troops patrol the pocket, set up roadblocks, question and detain whomever they want. The only way to travel, suggested the U.N. official, was to get rid of anything-papers, money, candy wrappers, that would indicate you were from Israel...
...incident began without warning when a French unit intercepted four armed Arabs near Tyre, the ancient coastal city (pop. 30,000) that serves as a base for many of the Palestinians in southern Lebanon. Someone-each side blamed the other-opened fire; two of the Arabs were killed. A previously unknown group that calls itself the Popular Front for the Liberation of the South from Occupation and Fascism promised revenge. The group is believed by some authorities to be made up not of Palestinians but of Lebanese fighters allied with Dr. George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation...
Regardless of who was responsible, the revenge came swiftly. The next day terrorists ambushed a French U.N. vehicle two miles northeast of Tyre, wounding one French soldier. Even as Colonel Salvan, a tough, one-eyed veteran of Viet Nam and Algeria, was listening to reports of the incident, another band of terrorists opened fire on his headquarters. The French shot back, not quite sure whom they were fighting, and for half an hour a firefight raged. "I have never seen such a confused battle," a French soldier said later. "Everyone was shooting at everyone...