ISRAELI AIR RAID DESTROYS ARAFAT'S BASE IN TUNISIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605360009-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 2, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
I Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605360009-6
WASHING`rON POST
2 Octorer 1985
Lsraeli Air Raid
Destroys Arafat's
Base in Tunisia
Many Die in. Attach; U.S. Defends Action
By Jonathan Randal
Washington Post Foreign Service
TUNIS, Oct. 1-Israeli war-
planes today destroyed the personal
headquarters here of,Yasser Arafat,
chairman of the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization, in a daring pre-
cision attack that required midair
refueling to reach the target 1,500
miles from home base.
Hours after the six-minute, mid-
morning bomb and missile attack on
the seaside complex 21 miles south
of Tunis, the official Tunisian news
agency TAP said the death toll had
reached more than 50. Earlier, a
PLO spokesman provisionally put
casualties at 156 without providing
a breakdown between the dead and
wounded..
Arafat, who reportedly was at
another PLO site, was not injured,
although there were indications
that the raid was timed to kill ?him.
Witnesses said. his L-shaped head-
quarters building had all but disap-
peared into a deep crater,
Israeli officials said the raid was
in retaliation for the assassination in.
Cyprus last Wednesday of three
Israelis at the hands of Palestinian.
gunmen, although the PLO had de-
nied involvement. Defense Minister
Yitzhak ?Rabin said it was a warning
to terrorists "that the long arm? of.
Israel's military will reach these
wherever 'they are. [Details on
Page A20.]
'? The raiif; Israel's first outside the .
Israeli-Lebanese region since 1981,
?~brought wine condemnation from
Arab countries, including Egypt,.
from iT.N. Secretary General Javier
Perez de Cuellar, and from sevefal
Western European capital.. :
YITZHAK RABIN
....calls raid a warning to terrorists
But in' Washington, President
Reagan and other U.S: officials
strongly. defended the Israelj, raid,
with White House spokesman Larry
Speakes . calling it `.`retaliation
against a terrorist attack" and "a
legitimate response and an expres-
sion of self defense." (Details on
Page A20.j
' The Tunisian government to-
night asked. the. U.N. Security
Council to meet to discuss the raid,
which Tunisian .Foreign Minister
Beji Caid Essebsi said was a case of
state terrorism aimed. at sabotaging
Middle East peace efforts:
The number and..types of: war,
planes used were not known and
Israeli military statements about
the raid gave no details; although
Israeli television said that they had
been refueled in the air for their
3,000-mile round trip:
Witnesses here told reporters
that they counted six planes, which
some said were F4 Phantoms. But
the Palestinian news agency WAFA
said eight U.S: made F16s were
involved in the attack, which heavi-
ly damaged or destroyed buildings
used by Force 17, the PLO's elite
security wing blamed by Israel for
the Cyprus killings, while leaving
others in the complex untouched.
A visibly affected Arafat, who
visited the scene in early afternoon
but made no statement, was re-
ported .to have been in Marsa, a
northern suburb of Tunis, when the
attack began at. 10:07 a.m., diplo-
mats said. Tunisian sources said
there had been plans for Arafat to
preside over a meeting with Force
17 officials between 9 and 11 a.m.
Since Arafat moved his headquar-
ters to Tunisia after the Israelis.
forced the PLO to leave Beirut in
1982, various Palestinian offices
have?been purposely dispersed into
? many neighborhoods to avoid run-
ning the risk of the Israelis.' de-
stroying all the leadership at once.
Tunisian witnesses said two Is-
raeli aircraft remained high in the
sky while the others attacked in
pairs with air-to-ground- missiles.
WAFA said 500-pound bombs,
some of them delayed-action, also
were dropped.
Diplomats quoted Tunisian mil-
itary sources as saying Israeli
planes reportedly started skimming
just above the Mediterranean when
they reached the island of Malta,
250~niles to the east, to avoid radar
detection.
Tunisian radar screens picked up
~fhe intruders only minutes before
they attacked, the diplomats added.
Except for frequent raids into
Lebanon, today's was the first
? abroad by Israel since their- aircraft
destroyed a French-built nuclear
reactor near the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad on June 7, 1981.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03 :CIA-RDP90-009658000605360009-6