Guerrillas Ambush Israeli Patrol Three Soldiers Killed Along Border With Jordan

Syrian-based guerrillas ambushed an Israeli army patrol along the border between the West Bank and Jordan on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and wounding two.

A breakaway faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was intended to protest the Israel-Palestinian peace accords.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that not only the guerrillas but also the regimes that tolerate them should be held responsible - a clear reference to Syria and Iran.

“These terrorists never operate in a vacuum,” he said. “There are regimes that stand behind them and support them. Those regimes must understand that they will pay a political and economic price.”

Netanyahu, who was elected May 29 after campaigning on a tough anti-terrorism platform, said the attack and Wednesday’s bombing of a U.S. military complex in Saudi Arabia were part of “a renewed terrorist offensive” in the Middle East.

Israeli army officials said they believed two or three assailants carried out the attack after entering Israel from Jordan. Jordanian officials denied that there was evidence the attackers had come from Jordan.

Israeli and Jordanian troops combed both sides of the river, firing automatic weapons into the underbrush, while helicopters from both countries searched overhead.

Bloody tracks leading from the attack site indicated one of the gunmen had been wounded or killed, authorities said.

The Abu Moussa guerrilla group, based in Damascus, Syria, issued a statement saying one of its men was missing following the gunbattle. The group is a rebel faction of Fatah, Yasser Arafat’s mainstream faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Netanyahu said he received a telephone call from Jordan’s King Hussein, who sent his condolences and said the attack was aimed at sabotaging the peace between the two countries.

“Both of us agree that this border … must remain a border of peace,” Netanyahu said.