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DATE=1/4/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=LEBANON / RUSSIA (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257754
BYLINE=RICHARD ENGEL
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Security officials in Lebanon are 
searching for at least two accomplices they 
believe were involved in a grenade attack 
(Monday) on the Russian embassy in Beirut. 
Richard Engel reports from our Middle East bureau 
that authorities believe one attacker killed by 
police was a member of a Palestinian extremist 
group.
TEXT:  Lebanese police are reportedly focusing 
their search on Palestinian refugee camps in and 
around Beirut where they believe accomplices in 
the attack on the Russian embassy may be hiding.
One assailant, killed Monday after an hour-long 
shoot out with police in central Beirut, has been 
identified as an aide to the leader of an 
extremist Palestinian group wanted for the 
assassination of a Muslim cleric five years ago.
The gunman, 30-year-old Ahmed Raja Abu Kharoub, 
lived in the massive Ein el-Helwa refugee camp, 
50 kilometers outside of Beirut.
The camp is home to some 75-thousand refugees and 
is controlled by rival Palestinian factions. 
Police, however, say the search for accomplices 
is focusing on another Palestinian refugee camp 
located only two hundred meters from the Russian 
embassy. Police believe the attackers could have 
fled to this camp on foot after firing four anti-
tank grenades and machine guns at the embassy.
A Lebanese police officer was killed during the 
attack, but Russian officials say no diplomatic 
staff was harmed.
Lebanese police have confirmed they found a note 
on Abu Kharoub that suggests the attack was 
designed to oppose Russia's military campaign 
against Muslim rebels in Chechnya.
The Russian embassy in located in a busy Muslim 
section of Beirut where sympathy for the besieged 
Islamic rebels in Chechnya runs high.
The Palestinian leadership in Gaza, however, has 
condemned the attack, saying it threatened 
stability in Lebanon.
///Opt /// The U-S State Department spokesman, 
James Rubin, said in Shepherdstown, West 
Virginia, where Israeli and Syrian officials are 
holding peace talks, that the attack was a 
cowardly act of terrorism. ///End opt/// (SIGNED)
NEB/RHE/GE 
04-Jan-2000 05:58 AM EDT (04-Jan-2000 1058 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.