Middle East Aftershocks in Beirut

A new drama appeared to be building around an increasingly battered and bomb- shocked Lebanon late last week. It was a development that began not in the hills and valleys of southern Lebanon, where withdrawing Israeli forces faced violent resistance from Shi'ite Muslim militants, but off the Spanish island of Majorca in the western Mediterranean. There, on Thursday evening, two nuclear-powered American warships, the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and the guided-missile cruiser Mississippi, cut short a visit so abruptly that more than 100 crew members were left behind. For 24 hours, the U.S. would say only that the ships were "at sea in the western Mediterranean at this time." By week's end it seemed that the ships were in fact heading toward the coast of Lebanon, where they would "show the flag," as a senior Administration official put it. If necessary, they would also be available to evacuate the estimated 1,400 Americans left in Lebanon.

Earlier in the week, 36 Americans working with the United Nations forces in southern Lebanon were pulled out. Threats against Americans had increased as the Shi'ite-dominated resistance movement became more active in the region. The warnings also coincided with a U.N. debate over a Lebanese-sponsored resolution condemning Israeli actions during the current withdrawal. Since the U.S. is virtually certain to veto the resolution, the Administration was clearly well-advised to take steps to minimize the risk of retaliation.

The American warships had been out of Majorca for less than a day when the apparent object of their mission, Beirut, became the scene of one of the worst acts of carnage since the truck-bomb explosions of Oct. 23, 1983, when 241 U.S. and 58 French servicemen of the multinational peacekeeping force perished. On Friday, not far from a crowded mosque in a densely populated Shi'ite Muslim suburb of the Lebanese capital, another car bomb took its toll, killing 75 people and injuring more than 250. The blast damaged an eight- story apartment building as well as the mosque, where worshipers were gathering for prayers.

The explosion occurred near the home of one of Lebanon's Shi'ite religious leaders, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a pro-Iranian cleric with close links to the extremist Hizballah (Party of God) organization. The sheik was unhurt, but five of his bodyguards were killed. Hizballah, which is believed to have been responsible for the truck bombing of the U.S. Marine headquarters as well as attacks on two U.S. embassy buildings in Beirut, has recently been trying to capture the leadership of Lebanon's Shi'ite community with a call for the establishment of an Islamic republic in the country. The group has many enemies, ranging from the Christian Phalangist party to the relatively secular, mainstream Shi'ite Amal movement. Syria, despite its close ties with Iran, is also less than happy over Hizballah's recent attempts to stir up trouble in Lebanon. Thus, as in so much of the devastation that has racked Lebanon over the past decade, there was no shortage of suspects.