U.S. Pilots Fly Hondurans to Sandinista Battle Area

American-piloted helicopters ferried Honduran soldiers Wednesday to the edge of a frontier battleground where troops from Nicaragua reportedly are clashing with U.S.-backed rebels.

It was the first time U.S. soldiers have been employed in a military operation directed against the Marxist-led Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Both Honduran and U.S. officials say that Sandinista troops crossed into Honduras over the weekend in order to destroy at least one training camp operated by the rebels, known as contras.

The rightist contras are reported to be battling groups of Sandinista troops who are trying to fight their way southward back to Nicaragua. The Sandinista government in Managua denies that its soldiers entered Honduras.

The three main Nicaraguan government units that entered Honduras have broken up into smaller groups to avoid capture, sources said. The description of fleeing Sandinistas trying to fight their way out of Honduras could not be confirmed independently, but some officials in Washington said that the fighting appeared to be about over.

Although Honduras pledged to repel the Nicaraguans, its troops disembarked from helicopters that landed about 10 miles from the nearest shooting.

A Honduran government spokesman had announced Tuesday that U.S. helicopters were already ferrying Honduran troops to the border area, but the report was contradicted by the Pentagon and proved erroneous. Such flights did not begin until Wednesday.

Sources here said the Honduran goal was to put on a show of force while avoiding combat.

“They’re not looking for a fight,” said one knowledgeable source.

The hands-off approach seems to match the season. Eastertime is vacation time in Honduras. The country’s president, Jose Azcona Hoyo, has left the capital for a rest, and some of the soldiers on their way to the front seemed more concerned about their interrupted leaves than killing Nicaraguans.

The Honduran army does appear to be looking for a quick propaganda victory, however. Wednesday afternoon, Honduran military officials presented two ragged soldiers who they said were captured Sandinista troops. “Here is evidence that demonstrates the warlike invasion of the Sandinista army of Nicaragua,” proclaimed armed forces spokesman Jorge Arguello.

In a communique released soon afterward, the armed forces asserted that the Sandinista object was to “protect the infiltration of subversive groups trained in Cuba and Nicaragua” sent to destabilize Honduras.

The communique never mentioned the apparent real target of the attack: the contras based in Honduras who are currently skirmishing with the Sandinistas. Honduras maintains that the contras are not camped inside the country.

At 8 a.m., U.S. helicopters began flying Honduran troops from an air force base near Tegucigalpa. In all, about 600 soldiers armed with M-16 rifles, M-60 machine guns and a variety of mortars were carried in four C-47 Chinook helicopters and 10 UH-1A Huey choppers to sites about 100 miles due east of Tegucigalpa.

The Honduran armed forces number about 20,000. There are about 2,500 U.S. troops currently stationed in the country.

Because the U.S. helicopter crews are being kept far from the fighting, U.S. officials here argue that the soldiers are not endangered by “hostilities” and that therefore congressional approval for the activity under the War Powers Resolution is unneeded. The helicopters fly unarmed.

The Honduran troops, wearing U.S.-issue fatigues and steel helmets, were first dropped at an intermediate base about 25 miles from the fighting and then flown in shifts to smaller bases within 10 miles of the reported action.

U.S. Army Built Base

The intermediate base, a dusty earthen airfield known as Jamastran, was built by U.S. Army engineers during one of a series of military maneuvers held jointly with Honduras during the past few years.

Reporters flown to Jamastran to witness the airlift were permitted only limited contact with soldiers, and no one offered information on their mission. A U.S. soldier, described by U.S. Embassy officials as a “liaison officer,” helped coordinate helicopter traffic at Jamastran.

One Honduran soldier complained to reporters that he was on his way home when his leave was cancelled. “I hope this lasts a short time,” he said.

Another, surveying the dust kicked up by whirling rotors, commented, “The beach this is not.”

The apparent capture of two Sandinista soldiers perked up a belated Honduran armed forces publicity campaign against the incursion. The pair, who identified themselves as Mario Hernandez Mayorga and Carlos Alberto Sandino, were shown to reporters at military headquarters in Tegucigalpa. Sandino’s shoulder was bandaged.

The military also displayed documents described as captured from Sandinista soldiers; some bore Hernandez’s and Sandino’s names.

In any case, some of the diaries and letters appeared to corroborate the notion that the Sandinistas crossed into Honduras some time ago.

The papers spoke of ambushes and arrivals at Honduran landmarks since Feb. 29, as well as more mundane pursuits such as gambling among soldiers and professions of love to the girl back home.

Complete descriptions of the reported battles between contras and Sandinistas are scarce and not confirmable.

The few depictions of the Sandinista offensive tell of a bold effort to overrun a contra training camp about 12 miles north of the border and 100 miles east of Tegucigalpa.

Three units totaling about 800 troops struck across the border east of the nearly abandoned contra camp known as Las Vegas. However, about 200 of the troops were bogged down in skirmishes with contras on the way to the camp. The rest, although backed by rocket artillery from Nicaragua, were unable to overrun the training base, although they reached the innermost defenses.

In retreat, the sources said, the Sandinistas were cut off by about 1,000 contra troops that marched from the east. These guerrillas had been on the verge of infiltrating into Nicaragua when they were called to attack the Sandinistas pulling out of Honduras.

Other Sandinista forces that numbered about 700 attempted to move across the border and also met resistance. In all, about 6,000 contras are presently inside the Honduran border, the sources estimated.

Among the Sandinista units said to be involved in the battles are the German Pomares and Francisco Estrada irregular warfare battalions and a border unit called the Cristobal Vanegas brigade.

Sources here said that the Sandinista troops still in Honduras are not bottled up and will probably be able to slip through the rough terrain to safety.

No reliable casualty count is available.

Wednesday’s airlift came in response to a request from the Honduran government for U.S. help. The U.S. aid is in accordance with a number of treaties that commit the United States to help Honduras in case of attack.

There is some question whether the government of Honduras was originally eager to publicize the fighting as long as it involved only Sandinistas and contras. But announcements made in Washington of the Sandinista drive made it all but impossible for Honduras to ignore the military activity within its frontiers.

The Honduran armed forces are entering the fray rather late, according to sources in the capital. Hostilities had been building for some time.

A Honduran reconnaissance helicopter was disabled by Sandinista gunfire March 18, the Honduran military said. The chopper was flying eight miles within Honduras. Sandinista troops were already known to have been filtering into the country for several weeks.

The Honduran government kept the news secret because, according to Wednesday’s communique, it wanted “to maintain the calm and tranquility of the people” during the Easter holidays.

Heavy fighting began Sunday morning near the main contra training base known as the Military Instruction Center, informed sources said. The armed forces chief, Humberto Regalado, did not ask for U.S. help until late Monday.