Nicaraguans Show Craters and Shrapnel

Sandinista military men Monday showed journalists around Wiwili, about 16 miles from the Honduran border, and pointed out craters and shrapnel that they said were left from bombing runs by jets from Honduras.

Col. Xavier Carrion, No. 2 man in the Sandinista army general command, said the attack on the town Sunday was directed by the United States, but he said he did not know who was piloting the planes or what type of aircraft they were.

Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government has reported that seven soldiers were killed and 12 people wounded in air strikes on Wiwili, a town of about 15,000 people, and on an army post at Murra, 11 miles northwest of Wiwili.

Honduras Denies Charge

Officials of Honduras, which has been engaged in a border skirmish with Nicaragua, denied that their planes attacked Nicaraguan villages.

Sandinista officials on Monday showed reporters what they said were pieces of shrapnel from the raids. One twisted fragment bore lettering in English that read, “2.75 inch rocket motor mk mod 10.”

Three craters, about 10 feet wide, pocked an area near an airstrip, and the officials said they were caused by missiles. The nearest craters were about 200 yards from the airstrip, which was not hit.

The reporters also were taken to a military clinic to interview seven wounded people.

Carrion said the attacking jets made four bombing runs Sunday in an apparent attempt to destroy two Soviet-made air force troop-transport helicopters parked along the airstrip. But he said the helicopters were untouched.

The officer said there were two planes in each run.

Air Base in Palmerola

Carrion quoted Sandinista intelligence sources as saying that the bombing operation was organized in Palmerola in central Honduras.

About 1,000 U.S. troops are stationed at Palmerola air base, acting in a support capacity for joint U.S.-Honduras military maneuvers that have been going on in that country since 1982.

Honduran Foreign Ministry spokesman Eugenio Castro said Monday, “The only planes operating are Honduran, and they are attacking Sandinista troops inside Honduran territory.”

U.S.-backed rebels operate from bases in southern Honduras to fight the Sandinista government inside Nicaragua.

In the military clinic that reporters visited, army Sgt. Ronald Ruiz Cruz said from his bed that the attacking planes had camouflage painting and that he could not see identification markings.

He said he was hit in the right thigh by a fragment from a bomb that fell near the airstrip.

All the wounded, including a 12-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, appeared to have slight or superficial injuries.

About 40 yards from the craters was a dirt-floor shack. Witnesses said the family living there escaped harm, although a pig outside was hit by shrapnel and killed.

Salvador Blandon, coordinator of the Sandinista defense committee for Wiwili, described the raiding planes as dark-colored, “super-fast jets” and said he saw no identifying markings. He said three planes made bombing runs and that some local militia members fired at the jets with AK-47 automatic rifles.