Israeli Jets Bomb Arafat’s Base in Tunisia; 60 Killed : Retaliation for Killing of 3 in Cyprus

Streaking 1,500 miles across the Mediterranean Sea, Israeli warplanes bombed and destroyed the PLO headquarters today, killing as many as 60 people and injuring about 100 others in retaliation for the Yom Kippur slayings of three Israelis in Cyprus.

The single-engine F-16 jets flew a 1,550-mile round trip for the attack on the PLO command center in this North African nation--Israel’s longest retaliatory air strike ever. The planes refueled in mid-flight, the Israeli army said in Jerusalem.

Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat had just returned from a trip to Rabat, Morocco, but was not at the three-building compound in the Tunis suburb of Borj Cedria when the jet fighters attacked, a Palestinian source said.

Arafat later toured the devastated site but did not comment. Other PLO leaders vowed to retaliate.

Palestinian sources in the Tunisian capital said that as many as 60 people, believed to be Palestinians, were killed and that 100 others were wounded in the bombing attack by four to six Israeli jets.

One Arafat Bodyguard

At least one of the dead was a member of Force 17, Arafat’s elite bodyguard, the sources said.

Residents of the city said they heard one big explosion and four lesser blasts. Sirens screamed throughout the city as casualties were ferried to hospitals.

Only rubble remained of three seaside villas used as headquarters by the PLO. Scraps of twisted iron and chunks of stone were thrown hundreds of yards by the force of the explosions. Neighboring buildings were untouched.

The Israeli army in Jerusalem confirmed that its jets attacked the PLO base and said all returned safely.

Israel blamed Force 17 for the murder six days ago of two men and a woman aboard an Israeli yacht anchored in the harbor at Larnaca, Cyprus, by three gunmen who said they were fighting for the Palestinian cause.

‘Neither Forgive nor Forget’

“We will neither forgive nor forget the Larnaca affair,” Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in a speech in Tel Aviv almost at the moment of the Tunis attack.

The Tunisian government said it will ask for a session of the U.N Security Council to condemn the attack.

In Washington, President Reagan said nations have the right to retaliate against terrorist attacks “as long as you pick out the people responsible.”

Asked whether the Israelis did in fact pick out the right people in their air raid, the President said, “I’ve always had great faith in their intelligence.”

Earlier, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Israel’s air raid appears from reports to be “a legitimate response” to a terrorist attack, although the United States deplores the cycle of violence of which it is a part.

Important Offices Hit

Israeli sources said the destroyed structures had housed the offices of Arafat and his aides, the offices of Force 17 commander Abu Tayeb, and the offices of the PLO’s operations chief, Abu Mutasem, who is responsible for the guerrilla group’s planning and its infrastructure in Lebanon.

Arafat set up the headquarters in a suburb 15 miles south of Tunis after he was forced out of Beirut after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

“Israel will pay very dearly,” PLO Secretary General Abu Abbas threatened. “We will hit very hard, especially in the Israeli-occupied territories.”

Today’s attack was Israel’s 31st air raid since resuming such attacks after a suicide mission at an Israeli installation in Tyre, Lebanon, on Nov. 4, 1983. All the previous raids were on PLO installations in Lebanon.