LEBANON: ROCKET ATTACK ON SERIPLANE KILLS CAPTAIN, INJURED TWO CREW AND CLOSES BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AGAIN.

Record ID: 355225

  • Title: LEBANON: ROCKET ATTACK ON SERIPLANE KILLS CAPTAIN, INJURED TWO CREW AND CLOSES BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AGAIN.
  • Date: 28th June 1976
  • Summary: 1. GV Beirut airport (2 shots) 0.06 2. SV Passengers leaving aircraft 0.13 3. GV shell landing near terminal building 0.18 4. GV Smoke from shell and burning aircraft (4 shots) 1.01 5. SV Passengers taking cover in terminal building (5 shots) 1.22 On Monday night Reuters News Agency reported that the Sudanese and Saudi Arabian con
  • Embargoed: 13th July 1976 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA5RHPR54Q8XOF4BX5MCDTKL47Z
  • Story Text: In the Lebanon left-wing forces shelled the right-wing stronghold of Jounieh north of Beirut on Monday (28 June) in retaliation for an attack which closed Beirut's international airport the day before.

    SYNOPSIS:The airport was only reopened last Wednesday after a 16 day closure because of the civil war.

    The passengers had just disembarked from this flight from Amman in Jordan when a rocket or shell hit the port wing of a nearby Boeing which had just arrived without passengers from Amman. The plane's captain Zuheir Miqata, a 39-year-old Lebanese, was killed and two of his crew, including an American flight engineer, were badly burned. Leftists immediately blamed their right-wing foes for the shelling. Last Friday the war council of the Falangist party issued an ultimatum that the airport would be closed down within five days unless there was freedom of access to it for all Lebanese. At resent the country is split by the fighting and the airport is in the hands of the leftists--but as the Falangists have apparently proved, the airport is within their artillery range.

    After the shelling the passengers from the other Amman plane took cover in shelters under the airport. Apart from the shell attack which closed the airport, some of the most intense fighting of the war took place during the day as the isolated defenders of Palestinian camps in east Beirut repeatedly beat off right-wing attacks.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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