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Six days later, Al-Fatah avenged what its radio station called "a brutal massacre." Striking across the Syrian border in a maneuver that could not have been conducted without approval from the far-left regime in Damascus, commandos hit the Lebanese border towns of Masnaa, Arida and Biqeiha. Overpowering police and customs posts, the guerrillas took 24 captives. They were later set free, but only after Al-Fatah bragged that their capture was "full evidence of the revolution's ability to take any measures it considers appropriate for self-defense." Al-Fatah, in other words, would move when and where in Lebanon it pleased.
The events produced internal and external crises for Lebanon. Karami resigned as caretaker Premier. Arab leaders called a general strike, and some of the 160,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon fought pitched battles with police in Beirut. In Tripoli, Lebanon's second city, street battles killed seven and injured scores. Helou was forced to declare a nationwide curfew to prevent further disorders.
Border Troubles. Helou also telephoned Syria's head of state, Noureddine Atassi, to protest Damascus' support of the guerrilla raids. Atassi had closed the Syrian-Lebanese border, stranding more than 500 trucks along the 68-mile Beirut-Damascus highway, one of the Middle East's busiest trade routes. Ignoring Helou's protests, Syria —or the fedayeen—moved riflemen, armored cars and mortars to the Lebanese frontier. At week's end some troops were reported to have crossed the border and occupied a village four miles inside Lebanon. The Syrians have traditionally been better at rattling sabers than using them, however, and nobody expected a full-fledged invasion to follow.
Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser expressed "dismay" that "Arab bullets were directed to the wrong target, whatever the reason." Reportedly on instructions from Premier Golda Meir, Israeli officials said nothing. Only Deputy Premier Yigal Allon broke the silence to warn that Israel would not sit on its hands if the status quo were disturbed.
The U.S. also came under fire, mostly because the State Department had recently expressed its concern over "any threat to Lebanese integrity from any source." South Yemen broke off diplomatic relations with the U.S. Washington said that it planned to take no retaliatory action. Jordan's King Hussein, who has toyed with the idea of curbing the guerrillas himself, tried to steer a middle course. He sent no protest to Helou, but told Al-Fatah Leader Yasser Arafat: "It is a shame that a single drop of Arab blood be shed by an Arab hand." In Baghdad, 250,000 Iraqis demonstrated against Lebanon, as did mobs in Libya.