Bomb Attacks Kill 3 in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR — Leftist rebels attacked the heavily guarded Defense Ministry with car bombs and catapult-launched explosives on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding about 35, officials said.

The assault on the military headquarters compound and on a nearby Salvadoran government health clinic appears to be part of a major rebel offensive against the U.S.-backed government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte.

Also on Friday, unidentified terrorists blew up a biology laboratory at National University in San Salvador and shot to death a night watchman, a school official said. The 35,000-student university, the biggest in the nation, has been the scene of recent demonstrations by leftist students.

Witnesses said four car bombs exploded just outside the Defense Ministry and at a health clinic 50 yards away. A 20-foot-high wall surrounds the compound, which also houses the headquarters of the El Salvador’s military command.

Gen. Carlos Vides Casanova, the Salvadoran defense minister, told a news conference that homemade bombs were also launched from catapults. A military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three projectiles fell inside the compound.

The defense minister said that three people, apparently all passers-by, were killed in the attack and that homemade bombs destroyed four vehicles and three buildings.