BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The battleship USS New Jersey opened fire repeatedly tonight with its 5-inch guns at Druze Moslem positions in response to attacks on the U.S. Marines at Beirut airport.
The New Jersey, which blasted Syrian anti-aircraft positions in the mountains east of Beirut with its mammoth 16-inch guns Wednesday, trained its smaller cannons on the rebels after the 1,200 marines came under fire at dusk.
Marine spokesman Capt. Wayne Jones said M-60 tanks bombarded the nearby Druze town of Shoueifat -- a no-man's land between rebel forces and joint Lebanese army-Marine positions near the airport -- after they were hit with small arms fire and large-caliber rounds at 5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EST.)
Twenty minutes later, the rebels hit back with ZSU anti-aircraft guns and rocket fire and the Marines responded with 81-mm mortars and artillery, but as the fighting escalated the New Jersey's guns were called in, Jones said.
'The New Jersey is firing in support of us with 5-inch guns only,'said Jones.
At the same time, the U.S. ambassador's residence in Yarze, a hilly eastern suburb of Beirut, came under rocket fire with a spokeswoman reporting seven or eight explosions close to the house. The ambassador was not home.
An American military source said the area near the Lebanese Ministry of Defense in Yarze also was coming under rocket fire. Fierce shelling was reported in Khalde south of the Marine positions and in the Souk el Gharb in the hills above the Marines.
The New Jersey, the world's only operational battleship, has 12 5-inch guns, each capable of firing 15 rounds per minute at a maximum range of about 10 miles.
As the 45-minute battle raged around Beirut airport, the Marines went into their bunkers on maximum condition 1 alert.
The tension of the Marines was evident earlier today when the American troops shot at a taxi carrying a two-man U.S. televsion crew that made a wrong turn.
The Marines fired warning shots when the taxi tried to enter the wrong gate at the Marine base and then opened up when the vehicle reversed to get out of danger, NBC producer Tony Hillman said.
Joseph Corcoran, a television crew member of WITN-TV, an NBC affiliate in Washington, N.C., was treated for glass cuts in the shoulder, Hillman said. Corcoran had just arrived on an overnight ship from Cyprus and was going to the base to tape Christmas messages from Marines.
The Lebanese taxi driver, Mustafa Mahmoud Najjar, was shot in the head and left arm. He was expected to be released in three or four days, Hillman said.
Earlier, unidentified gunmen shot and killed a French peackeeping soldier near the Residence des Pins home of the French ambassador, a French spokesman said.
A spokesman for the 2,000-member French peacekeeping force in Lebanon said today's shooting followed by the death of another French soldier late Wednesday night. The soldier was killed when his observation post was hit by a shell.
The rightist Voice of Lebanon radio station said the observation post was located at a government-held mountain village overlooking Syrian and Druze positions in the Upper Metn east of Beirut.
The deaths brought to 80 the number of French soldiers killed since their deployment in Lebanon in September 1982. The gunmen involved in today's shooting near the Residence des Pins home of the French ambassador escaped, the spokesman said.
On Wednesday, Three U.S. warships -- including the battleship New Jersey -- fired 71 rounds Wednesday at six Syrian anti-aircraft positions only 15 miles east of Beirut.
The shelling came in response to attacks on U.S. F-14 Tomcat jets during reconnaissance missions over Syrian-controlled territory outside Beirut, the Pentagon said.
U.S. Middle East envoy Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the Syrian capital within hours of the attack and met immediately with Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, Damascus radio said.
Syria claimed only one man was wounded in the attack, although the New Jersey alone fired 11 tons of explosives, enough to clear 11 helicopter landing zones, military officials said.
In Washington, President Reagan said, 'We want no conflict with Syria' but stood behind the right of U.S. peace-keeping forces in Lebanon to defend themselves.
'We continue to try to communicate, negotiate with them, let them know to stop shooting at us,' Reagan told a news conference.
It was the third retaliatory strike on Syrian targets since Dec. 4 and the second use of naval gunfire in two days. U.S. warplanes first struck in the same area 10 days ago and the USS Ticonderoga and USS Tattnall opened up from the sea with their 5-inch guns Tuesday and again Wednesday.
The New Jersey, which is nicknamed 'Firepower for Freedom', was summoned to Lebanon in September to protect the 1,200 Marines on the ground at Beirut airport as part of the multinational peace-keeping force.
The battleship, a veteran of World War II and Korea, had not fired its big guns since Vietnam.
