Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990 TAG: 9004180541
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BEIRUT, LEBANON LENGTH: Medium
Police could not immediately confirm the report.
The Communist Voice of the People radio, based in Moslem west Beirut, said the bus was hit while trying to cross to Christian east Beirut.
"Incendiary bullets hit the fuel tank, setting the bus on fire. Eleven schoolchildren burned to death," the broadcast said.
The radio station of rebellious Gen. Michel Aoun said the bus was hit by rival gunmen of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces militia. It said the bus belonged to the privately owned, new Mraijeh elementary school in south Beirut.
The attack followed intermittent skirmishing and a powerful explosion that rocked Aoun's defense ministry. News reports said three soldiers were killed.
Radio stations based in Moslem west Beirut said the blast demolished two floors of the building in the eastern suburb of Yarze.
Aoun's command said in a communique that the blast was caused by a shell and killed two people. It said the explosion occurred when soldiers were "moving confiscated ammunition" to one of the defense ministry's buildings. It did not say whether the explosion was accidental.
The Voice of the People and the Voice of the Nation, both based in Moslem west Beirut, said the unidentified commander of Aoun's "strike force," a 1,500-strong elite force, was wounded in the explosion.
Aoun, who has been involved in a bloody power struggle with Geagea for more than two months, does not leave his headquarters in the bunker of the adjacent presidential palace.
Telephone calls to the defense ministry and to Aoun's headquarters at the shell-shattered presidential palace were not answered.
The Christian rivals have been battling since Jan. 30 for control of the 310-square-mile Christian enclave, and the fighting has killed 877 people and wounded 2,388.
Meanwhile, rival Shiite Moslem militias fought a 90-minute gun battle this morning in Syrian-policed west Beirut, and one person was killed and four wounded, the police spokesman said.
The clash between the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God, and the Syrian-backed Amal, Arabic for "Hope," subsided after about 100 Syrian soldiers moved in to stop the confrontation.
Amal, in a communique, blamed the confrontation on Hezbollah, charging that the fundamentalist faction wanted to "block efforts being exerted to release the [Western] hostages held by Hezbollah." It did not elaborate.
Hezbollah has repeatedly denied involvement in the abduction of the 18 Westerners, including eight Americans, missing in Lebanon.
However, Hezbollah is believed to be the umbrella for the underground hostage-holding factions that follow the teachings of the late Iranian revolutionary patriarch Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
by CNB