The World : Rebels Plan Salvador Push

Leftist Salvadoran rebels, confident that last week’s voter rejection of President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s ruling party in favor of rightist candidates has polarized the country and strengthened their hand, said they will escalate the war. In Perquin, in a largely rebel-held area about 120 miles northeast of San Salvador, guerrilla commanders said their immediate steps will be to target U.S. military advisers for assassination; increase attacks in the capital aimed at the nation’s rich; use surface-to-air missiles to neutralize the military’s helicopter force, and step up large-scale daytime attacks on military targets. The military has said the rebels are no longer capable of launching more than one or two large attacks a year.