Lengthy Salvador Battle Kills 8 Soldiers : Latest Rebel Actions Appear to Signal Switch to Bolder Tactics

Leftist guerrillas engaged in prolonged, heavy combat with government troops in El Salvador’s eastern province of Morazan on Friday, leaving at least eight soldiers dead and 12 wounded, military officials said.

The attack on troops in Delicias de Concepcion, 118 miles east of the capital, was the latest action in a rebel offensive launched at the beginning of the year with a similar assault on military positions to the north in Osicala. Friday’s battle and the earlier encounter both appeared to represent a shift in rebel tactics in the seven-year guerrilla war.

In both battles, large rebel units fought for about seven hours. In contrast, for the last three years the guerrillas have relied primarily on small-unit attacks, ambushes and the planting of mines to avoid the army’s U.S.-supplied helicopter gunships.

Also this year, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebels have kidnaped the mayors of four small towns, resurrecting a tactic they had abandoned in late 1985. Three times this year, the rebels have stopped traffic for several days at a time on the nation’s highways, including an action that halted traffic in the western part of the country for the first time.

‘Popular War’

The guerrillas are fighting what they call a “prolonged popular war” to oust the government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte, which, through U.S. aid and training, has gained the military initiative. At least 55 U.S. military advisers assist the Salvadoran armed forces, which have quadrupled in size during the last four years.

Osicala and Delicias de Concepcion are located in a heavily militarized region south of the Torola River, which is generally considered to be the border between army-controlled territory and land to the north controlled by the guerrillas.

Col. Mauricio Vargas, commander of the Morazan region, estimated that 100 guerrillas took part in the attack on Delicias, approaching the town from three directions with mortars, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

“I’ll say one thing: They’ve been resupplied,” Vargas said. “You don’t launch a seven-hour attack with 100 cartridges. They had a lot of firepower.”

In an afternoon broadcast on their clandestine Radio Venceremos, the guerrillas said that they killed 25 soldiers and wounded 24. The army and hospital officials in the provincial capital, San Francisco Gotera, said that eight soldiers were killed and 12 were wounded.

No Confirmation

Vargas said that 10 guerrillas were killed in the confrontation, but the rebels said they suffered only three casualties, without specifying dead or wounded. None of the figures could be independently confirmed.

Three civilians also were injured during the fighting, the colonel said, giving no details.

Vargas said the army called in three UH-1H and UH-1M helicopter gunships to counter the attack. He said guerrillas ambushed two armored personnel carriers that were bringing reinforcements to Delicias de Concepcion from Yoloaiquin to the south. He said no one was killed in the ambush, but the guerrillas said 13 soldiers died there.

Fighting was reportedly heavy in several communities around Delicias de Concepcion. Electricity and telephone service to the area were cut.

Vargas said the army repelled the guerrillas’ apparent attempt to occupy Delicias, to destroy its recently rebuilt town hall and health center and to kidnap the mayor.

“They tried to take the town and failed,” Vargas said. “They did not obtain their objective.”

The guerrillas kidnaped the mayor of Osicala during a Jan. 4 assault by 250 to 300 fighters. Twelve soldiers died in that combat.

Mayor Accused

Broadcasting on Radio Venceremos afterward, the rebels accused Mayor Salvador Sanchez of having been part of the army’s counterinsurgency plan.

“We reiterate that we are not disposed to permit the re-establishment of local government power in cities and towns where the army is not capable of defending them, such as Osicala,” the radio said two days after the kidnaping.

Sanchez was the first mayor abducted since late 1985, when the guerrillas exchanged President Duarte’s daughter and 16 mayors and local officials, all of whom they had kidnaped, for the freedom of more than 20 jailed rebels and safe conduct out of El Salvador for 96 wounded rebels.

Within days of releasing the president’s daughter, Ines Guadalupe Duarte Duran, the rebels kidnaped army Col. Omar Napoleon Avalos, director of the civil aeronautics administration.

Avalos was held for 15 months in Morazan before he was freed Feb. 2 in return for the release of 57 political prisoners from government jails and safe conduct out of the country for 42 wounded rebels.

The exchanges of kidnaped hostages for prisoners have shown that the guerrillas remain a force to be reckoned with in this country, compelling the government to negotiate with the rebels, with the Roman Catholic Church acting as intermediary.

3 More Abductions

Since the Osicala attack, three more small-town mayors have been abducted in eastern El Salvador.

The guerrillas announced their new military campaign in January, but they actually increased the tempo of their attacks a month before. In December, guerrillas ambushed a military outpost in San Esteban Catarina, killing 16 soldiers.

The guerrillas’ largest attack in 1986 was directed against an army garrison in the eastern province of San Miguel in which 57 soldiers were killed.