FROM NICHOLAS BLANFORD IN BEIRUT

  A MASS GRAVE containing up to 20 bodies was
  discovered yesterday in South Lebanon, the
  second to be unearthed since Israeli troops
  withdrew from the border strip it had occupied in
  May.

  The grave was uncovered by Lebanese soldiers
  on the edge of a valley near the Christian village
  of Bourj Molouk, three miles north of the border
  with Israel. The dead are thought to have been
  members of the Lebanese Arab Army (LAA),
  under the command of Ahmad al-Khatib, a
  Muslim lieutenant. The faction split from the
  regular Lebanese Army in 1976, a year after the
  country's civil war broke out. It was supported by
  many Lebanese left-wing guerrillas and
  Palestinian fighters, who dominated the area at
  the time.

  The victims were killed in autumn 1976 during
  the conflict with the Christian-led Army of Free
  Lebanon under the command of Major Saad
  Haddad. Major Haddad's force was later
  renamed the South Lebanon Army and was allied
  with Israel during the 22-year occupation.

  The victims, all residents of villages in South
  Lebanon, had been slaughtered in their beds
  during a dawn attack on the LAA headquarters on
  the edge of the town of Marjayoun by Major
  Haddad's militiamen, a Lebanese Army officer
  said. The headquarters remained in the hands of
  Major Haddad's militia until last month's Israeli
  troop withdrawal led to the collapse of the SLA. In
  1991 Lebanon's Government granted a general
  amnesty to those who had committed the 16-year
  conflict.

  A mass grave was discovered two weeks ago
  beside the former Israeli Army headquarters near
  Bent Jbail. It contained the remains of more than
  20 Lebanese fighters killed by Israeli troops in
  1978.