Rebels Kill 13 Troops in Salvador Attack : National Guard Post Target of Biggest Guerrilla Move Since May

In one of the most successful attacks by Salvadoran rebels in months, guerrillas Thursday killed 13 government troops and wounded at least a dozen more, according to military officials.

Using automatic weapons and mortars, the rebels, members of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, struck a National Guard post in the small city of Tejutepeque about 2 a.m., the officials said. Tejutepeque is in Cabanas province about 30 miles northeast of San Salvador.

After the four-hour battle ended, the National Guard post had been virtually destroyed, with 13 soldiers and four guerrillas dead, an army spokesman said. He added that at least 12 soldiers were wounded by gunfire and that at least five homes of civilians were damaged.

The attack was the biggest by the guerrilla forces since they tried to destroy a major dam last May and represents one of the worst defeats by government forces in the past year. It occurred in an area that the Salvadoran military had claimed was largely free of serious guerrilla incursions.

The day also was marked by a guerrilla attack on a civilian bus near the northern town of Tejutla, about 30 miles from the capital. At first, the army said that two passengers were killed and that several were wounded when the bus struck a mine and was hit by machine-gun fire. But other officials said later that only two civilians were hurt in the attack, which they said was evidently the result of rebels mistakenly believing the bus was carrying soldiers.

The army spokesman, who spoke on the condition he not be named, said a fight Thursday between army forces and the rebels near an area called Cerro Gigante, in the northeast province of Morazan, had resulted in the deaths of six guerrillas.

4 Guerrillas Killed

Another four guerrillas were killed in other skirmishes in the area, he added. Morazan is a rebel stronghold where the army has claimed there have been few serious contacts between the warring forces in recent weeks.

According to diplomats and Salvadoran military sources, the attack at Tejutepeque represents several serious developments beyond the severity of the fighting itself.

“It means that the guerrillas have established very capable forces in an area where the government has been claiming success in cleaning them out,” one European diplomat observed. “And it runs in the face of military claims that the government troops have learned to protect themselves against such night attacks.”

Another military expert said the National Guard, which is responsible for protecting government installations and small towns in rural areas, is considered a soft spot in the government security apparatus.

Col. Mauricio Ernesto Vargas, head of army operations, said in an interview one day before the Tejutepeque attack that the guerrilla forces, which are normally estimated at about 6,000, had lost the ability to mount a serious operation.

“There has been no significant action during the last five months,” he said. “Nearly all clashes (during that time) were initiated by the army.” He referred to a claim that not only had the rebels lost the ability to attack but also that the army had adopted new, mobile tactics that prevented the guerrillas from moving against government facilities.

But the fighting Thursday supported assessments by diplomats who have said in recent days that the area north and northeast of San Salvador had been the scene of battles in which security forces had suffered serious casualties.