ISRAELI AIR RAID DESTROYS ARAFAT'S BASE IN TUNISIA

Document Type: 
Collection: 
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
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
October 2, 1985
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00965R000605360009-6.pdf137.56 KB
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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