Christians’ Leader Hails Call for Truce : Muslim Buildup Outside Lebanese Heartland Reported

BEIRUT —  The leader of Lebanon’s Christian forces today welcomed a U.N. call for an immediate cease-fire as Syrian and allied Muslim troops reportedly bolstered their forces outside the Christian heartland.

The Christian army commander, Gen. Michel Aoun, “welcomes without any conditions the U.N. Security Council resolution,” an Aoun spokesman said.

“The resolution, as we understand it, is a package deal that involves not just a cease-fire but also the lifting of blockades and planning the Syrian military pull-out from Lebanon,” the spokesman added.

The spokesman did not elaborate, and it was unclear whether Aoun’s welcoming of the truce was tantamount to accepting it.

Little Fighting Today

The U.N. resolution made no direct references to Syria or its blockade of the embattled Christian enclave. But it called on “all the parties to put an immediate end to all operations and to all firing and shelling on land and at sea.” The resolution also called for “the opening of the lines of communication and the lifting of the sieges.”

There was relatively little fighting in Beirut today after heavy artillery battles Tuesday.

Aoun’s statement was issued one day after the Syrian army and Muslim factions vowed to join forces to defeat the Christians. Sources today reported a buildup of troops and ammunition around the Christian heartland.

There was no reaction to the U.N. cease-fire demand from Syrian and Muslim forces. The 15-nation Security Council had called for the truce during an emergency meeting ordered by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar.

‘Immediate and Global’

Arab League ministers also renewed their call for an end to the fighting. Arab League committee members King Hassan II of Morocco, King Fahd ibn Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia and Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid called in a statement for “an immediate and global” cease-fire.

Police said 19 people had been killed and 104 wounded in the fighting since dawn Tuesday, when Christian forces fought Syrian troops with tanks and artillery along the southern, eastern and northern edges of the Christian enclave north of Beirut.

Syrian gunners also pounded the 28-mile-long Christian coastline, the only escape route for the area’s residents.

By police count, 760 people have been killed and 2,050 wounded since the latest round of fighting in Lebanon’s civil war began March 8.

Since then, shelling day and night has largely destroyed Beirut and driven out 90% of the city’s 1.5 million residents.