Attack on Salvadoran Military Base Kills 42

Leftist guerrillas killed at least 42 troops and wounded 68 in a major attack today on a military base in eastern El Salvador where U.S. advisers are based, a military spokesman said.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Fred Lash said four U.S. servicemen were on temporary duty at the base to help train Salvadoran forces. He said there were no U.S. casualties in the attack.

Salvadoran armed forces spokesman Col. Carlos Aviles said fighting was still going on around the training center in La Union province about 90 miles east of San Salvador.

He said the bodies of nine rebels had been found.

The predawn attack was the biggest by the rebels since December, 1983, when they killed more than 100 soldiers in a raid on the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Brigade in Chalatenango.

Rebel Radio Venceremos claimed that the attack, launched on the fifth anniversary of the formation of the umbrella guerrilla group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, caused at least 200 government casualties.

FMLN rebels are attacking vehicles in many parts of El Salvador to enforce a week-old transport ban, the 10th they have imposed. The transport bans are part of a campaign to disrupt the economy and bring down the government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte.

Duarte is trying to negotiate the release of his 35-year-old daughter, Ines, who was kidnaped by leftist rebels on Sept. 10.