Lebanese, Syrians hunt peace

Lebanese Foreign Minister Fuad Butrus traveled to Damascus, Syria, Sunday as heavy fighting between rightist Christian forces and Syrian peacekeeping troops went into a second day in the central Lebanese mountains. Mr. Butrus, on a 24 -hour visit to Damascus, met Syrian Foreign Minister Abd al-Halim Khaddam to discuss ways of ending the clashes, which have raged all this month around Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and in Beirut.

Meanwhile in Sidon, 12 Israeli planes made a 40-minute bombing raid on eastern and northern suburbs of this Mediterranean port, killing or wounding 18 people, witnesses and other sources reported.

In Tel Aviv, a military spokesman said the targets hit by the raid were Nabatiyeh, just north of the Israeli-backed Christian enclave, and Al-Halila, two miles northeast of Sidon. He said the Israeli pilots scored precise hits against guerrilla concentrations.

The state-run Beirut Radio said it was one of the heaviest israeli air raids on Lebanon in a long time. Eleven days before, 12 people were reported killed or wounded when the Israelis attacked the port of Tyre, south of Sidon. Four days later, their planes struck at the Palestinian stronghold of Beaufort Castle , in southeastern Lebanon.