Anti-Gemayel Rebels Tighten Grip on Beirut

BEIRUT — Christian militias who demand an end to Syrian influence in the Lebanese government seized the last Beirut position of Amin Gemayel’s loyalists Friday. Syria said it would not accept mutiny against the embattled president, and the rebels asked for negotiations.

Rebel militiamen fired on Lebanese army units making the first attempt to end the three-day-old uprising. An army spokesman later said troops supported by five armored personnel carriers and heavy jeep-mounted guns moved between the Christian rivals north of Beirut and reopened the coastal highway.

The Syrian government reiterated its support of President Gemayel, a Maronite Christian, and said they “will not take an uncaring attitude toward these developments.”

Peace Overture

The anti-Gemayel faction is led by Samir Geagea, northern commander of the Lebanese Forces, the largest Christian militia. The rebels, faced with the presence of thousands of Syrian troops on the borders of Christian territory, made an overture Friday both to the Syrian government and to the Lebanese Muslim factions allied with it.

Rebel leaders called for “negotiations and contacts with all the Lebanese factions and with Syria.” They also asked that a Christian Council be formed to participate in negotiations to end 10 years of civil war between Christian and Muslim factions.

The rebels, who see their fight as a matter of Christian survival, pledged new measures to “restore normalcy” in the Christian heartland, an area above Beirut in northern Lebanon, that they now control, and promised to reopen all roads.

In other developments:

--Brian Levick, a British businessman who has worked in Beirut for 18 months, was kidnaped Friday, the British Embassy said.

It was the second abduction of a private British citizen in two days. Geoffrey Nash, 60, a metallurgist who works for the Lebanese government, was abducted Thursday.