The World - News from May 28, 1987

Nicaraguan rebels said they had intended to capture American Benjamin E. Linder, killed April 28 in a northern Nicaraguan war zone, but denied that he was shot in cold blood or at point-blank range. The contras’ alliance, the Nicaraguan Resistance, said in a statement that Linder, 27, died in a gun battle begun by Sandinista troops. Linder was working on a hydroelectric project for the Sandinistas when he died. The contras invited the Sandinistas to exhume Linder’s body and allow forensic experts and pathologists from a neutral country to perform an autopsy.