Honduras Troops Scour Border, Pursue Nicaraguan Stragglers : U.S. Says It Has Ended Airlift of Soldiers to Frontier

Honduran troops, ferried by U.S. helicopters on President Reagan’s orders, today searched for stragglers of a Nicaraguan force that pulled back after a cross-border raid in pursuit of contra rebels, a military source said.

The Honduran armed forces said 18 of its troops were wounded in the weekend fighting and claimed “many dead and wounded” Nicaraguan troops.

A Honduran military intelligence officer, who spoke anonymously, said most of the 700 Nicaraguan troops that mounted the raid three miles across the border already had withdrawn.

“Our forces are looking for stragglers now,” he said, adding that U.S. military helicopter transports took Honduran troops to the area today for the second day.

Airlift Has Concluded

In Washington, the White House today said the airlift had ended and the fighting had subsided.

Nicaragua denied its troops entered Honduras and said seven soldiers and two civilians died in warplane attacks on Nicaraguan villages.

The U.S. forces were ordered to remain away from the fighting, and no American casualties were reported. U.S. officials said the helicopters were unarmed.

The Honduran officer and a U.S. Embassy source, who also demanded anonymity, said 14 American Chinook helicopters, each manned by a five-member crew, ferried 700 Honduran troops from the central part of the country to the border area Sunday.

Honduras Requested Aid

Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo said Sunday he asked for the U.S. assistance.

The alleged incursion by the Sandinista troops was the fifth into Honduras reported in seven months.

Nicaraguan troops reportedly crossed the border Saturday and set fire to three deserted Honduran villages near the town of Cifuentes. The villages were abandoned more than six months ago because of tension along the mountainous, jungle border.

Capt. Carlos Quezada Aguilar, spokesman for the Honduran armed forces, said that the fighting around Cifuentes was “of considerable proportions.”

Honduran military intelligence sources said soldiers flown to the border joined about 1,000 troops from Honduras’ 6th and 9th Infantry Battalions, backed by helicopter gunships.

20 Miles From Border

U.S. helicopters took off from the U.S.-operated air base at Palmerola, 35 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa, and landed the Honduran troops about 20 miles from the fighting, U.S. officials said.

Gen. John Galvin, commander of American forces in the Southern Hemisphere, was in Tegucigalpa to supervise the airlift, according to U.S. officials.

In Managua, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D’Escoto denied that Nicaraguan troops were in Honduras and said, “If the Honduran army is having a confrontation with some Nicaraguans it would have to be with the contras.”

D’Escoto claimed U.S. warplanes bombed two Nicaraguan villages Sunday afternoon.