Rival Shiite Moslem militias armed with artillery and machine guns clashed in south Lebanon today despite the intervention of a Palestinian guerrilla peacekeeping force. Three people were reported killed. In Beirut, Gen. Michel Aoun, the Christian leader, was entangled in a growing financial scandal caused by foreign news reports that he had $15 million stashed away in French banks. The Iranian-backed fundamentalist Hezbollah, of Party of God, and the secular, Syrian-backed Amal militia have been battling for 13 days in the latest campaign of their 2-year-old war for control of Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiites, the country's largest sect. Including today's toll of three killed and 11 wounded, police say 73 people have been killed and 263 wounded since fighting broke out Dec. 23. Police said 300 guerrillas from the Fatah movement headed by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat deployed Wednesday across the strategic Hamade hill that Hezbollah captured Tuesday after a fierce battle. Hezbollah needs to hold the hill to protect the supply lines to its southern bases from the Bekaa Valley in east Lebanon, a Shiite stronghold where an estimated 2,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards are based. Zeid Wehbi, Fatah's political chief in the southern port city of Sidon, said the Palestinian deployment was aimed at ending the fighting. He said the guerrillas also sought to keep the fighting away from the Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el-Hilweh and Mieh Mmieh, a few miles to the north. Palestinian sources said Arafat fears that Hezbollah, which has gained the upper hand and captured five villages, would provide support for dissident PLO factions in the camps. Amal chief Nabih Berri appealed again today to Iran to stop sending military supplies to Hezbollah, saying Syria had discontinued the supply of arms and ammunititons to Amal after fighting erupted in the southern province. In Moslem west Beirut, newspapers gave prominent coverage to reports that Aoun has bank accounts in Paris. On Wednesday, the satirical Paris weekly Le Canard Enchaine published a bank statement showing two accounts in Aoun's name at the Banque Nationale de Paris, one with a balance of $500,00, the other with $14.7 million. Moslem-controlled radio stations said the reports have created a corruption scandal that could seriously damage Aoun's standing in the Christian community. The reports came amid efforts by the Syrian-backed government to force Aoun to end his defiance of President Elias Hrawi, who dismissed Aoun as army commander and interim prime minister in November. Aoun refuses to stand down, or accept a peace treaty approved by the Lebanese parliament. Aoun acknowledged having millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. ``It's not a secret for anyone. It's an open secret,'' Aoun said in an interview Wednesady on France's state-run radio station France-Inter. He said he had accounts in other French banks, as well as in the United States and Lebanon. The general said the funds in the accounts came from donations and were not for his private use. ``If necessary, I can withdraw the money needed to resolve financial crises,'' he said. ``For the last year and three months, I have received no money from the central bank as concerns the army.''
