Traffic Delayed as Contras Attack Vital Nicaraguan Highway Bridge

U.S.-backed contras dynamited a bridge Thursday on the Pan American Highway at La Trinidad, 72 miles north of here, interrupting commercial traffic between the capital and the key northern Nicaraguan city of Esteli. It was the fourth bridge assault this week carried out by the anti-Sandinista rebels.

Eleven rebels and an undetermined number of Nicaraguan soldiers were killed in combat after the attack on the bridge, officials said.

The attack cut the main highway link between Nicaragua and Honduras for several hours before traffic began moving again Thursday afternoon.

Earlier in the week, the contras blasted holes in three bridges on the Pan American Highway on either side of Esteli, a provincial capital of 40,000 people 96 miles north of Managua.

Esteli residents said they have been warned not to travel north or south of the city because of fighting in the area.

“The contras are all around the city, and there are not enough troops to prevent them from coming down to the road,” said Gary Ruchwarger, an American researcher who lives in the town.

A rebel radio station said that guerrillas destroyed a government munitions dump in La Trinidad, but such an action could not be independently confirmed.

Residents said that government planes have been bombing contra positions around Esteli since Wednesday night. Journalists returning from the city on Wednesday said they saw Soviet-made attack helicopters of the Nicaraguan air force flying in and out of the city.