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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM -- PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER 28 May 1984 Pg. 5 26 JUNE 1984 Americans in Beirut threatened Krom Inquirer Wire Services ‘ BEIRUT, Lebanon — More. guards -were posted at the American Univer: sity here as foreign teachers and US. Embassy workers were warned about a kidnapping threat from a funda- mentalist Muslim Shiite group, sources said yesterday. In eastern Lebanon,. three Israeli soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an ambush of their vehi- cle near the Syrian-Lebanese border. “The Israeli military command in Tel Aviv said the killers fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades as the patrol approached the village of Kamed el-Loz. The deaths brought to 14 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon this year... The threat to American University faculty members came from an Irani- an-allied group called Hezbollah, or Party of God, and. was transmitted from intelligence sources to the U.S. Embassy, according to university sources who asked not to be identi- fied. Ohe said the communique from the embassy indicated that the kidnap operation was to be carried out by guerrillas, some with explosives wrapped around themselves, and “in case these elements are hit by fire, they and the people they have kid- napped will be killed by the explo- sion.” About 50 Americans and other Westerners are employed at the uni- versity. US. Embassy spokesman John Stewart said, “I can confirm that there was an intelligence report that there was some sort of threat” against American University teach- ers “and other Americans.” - Although no increased security ar- rangements were noted at, the U.S. Embassy, which is already guarded by 100 Marines, a professor said extra guards were posted at faculty hous- ing units on the American Universi- ty campus. ; He said that the embassy communi- que said the kidnap operation was to coincide with an “occasion of cele- bration” and that faculty members were advised against attending the university’s annual “field day” of athletic contests on campus yester- y. The threat to Americans in Beirut came at a time when many were ‘already concerned about security in the mostly Muslim. western sector of the city. Since the area was taken over by Muslim militias on Feb. 6, four Americans have been kid- napped. _ Only American University engi- neering professor Frank Regier has been released. Still missing are Jer- emy Levin, Beirut bureau chief for Cable News Network; William Buck- ley, a political officer at the embassy, and the Rev. Benjamin Thomas Weir, a Presbyterian nrinister. Responsibility for the kidnappings - OMAHA WORLD HERALD 16 May 1984 43 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 was claimed by Islamic Jihad, a shad- owy Shiite Muslim movement that is believed to have ties to Iran. Hezbollah, with headquarters in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, supports Iran’s spiritual leader, Aya- tollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and has militia units stationed along the Green Line, which separates the . Muslim. and Christian sections of Beirut. The ambush of Israeli troops, con- firmed by the Israeli army, occurred early yesterday near the Israeli-Syri- an cease-fire line in the Bekaa Val- ley. Three soldiers were killed and two were wounded in the attack. It took place in a region in which Israeli and Syrian occupation. troops are posi- tioned less than a mile apart. The soldiers were traveling in two Jeeps when they were attacked south of the town of Kamed el-Loz, 20 miles southeast of Beirut, an Israeli gov- ernment spokesman said in Tel Aviv. Israeli forces occupying southern Lebanon have come under repeated ‘attack since their invasion in June 1982 to drive Palestinian guerrillas from Israel’s northern border. Syria has occupied northern and eastern Lebanon since putting down the 1975-1976 Muslim-Christian civil war. Yesterday's deaths brought to 14 the number of Israelis killed in Leba- non this year and to 580 the number killed since June 1982.