Rocket hits near site of Israel-Lebanon talks

January 25, 1983

Guerrillas fired a Soviet-made rocket at a military checkpoint Monday, a few hundred yards from the hotel where talks are being held on withdrawing foreign forces from Lebanon. The explosion occurred just before the talks began, Israeli military officials said.

They said the Soviet-made Katyush rocket was fired from an area east of the Beirut international airport patrolled by US Marine peacekeeping troops. The attack came a day after Israel charged that Palestinian guerrillas had slipped through Marine lines to carry out a series of recent raids south of Beirut that have resulted in Israeli casualties.