World Notes MIDDLE EAST

It was a precision raid. Israeli commandos landed by helicopter outside the southern Lebanese town of Gibchite early Friday morning. They slipped through the dark to their target: an apartment on the eastern edge of town belonging to Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, chief military commander of the southern Lebanese wing of Hizballah (Party of God), the fundamentalist Shi'ite group with close ties to Iran. The Israelis burst in, locked up Obeid's wife and children, and carried Obeid and two assistants off to Israel.

Jerusalem cited ample military reasons for wanting Obeid out of action, claiming he has instigated dozens of attacks against Israel and the so-called security zone it maintains in Lebanon. But kidnaping is not the usual method of the Israelis. They may actually have wanted to acquire bait for a hostage swap. Two affiliate groups of Hizballah are believed to be holding three Israeli prisoners of war captured in 1986, two of them soldiers taken in the security zone and the third an air force navigator. Americans wonder if U.S. Lieut. Colonel William Higgins, head of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, who was seized by Hizballah last year, might be part of a swap.