The World - News from Jan. 2, 1989

At least 186 civilians were assassinated in El Salvador in 1988, with the worst offender being the army, the country’s senior Roman Catholic Church official said. Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas said the military killed 85 noncombatants, rightist death squads 60 and left-wing guerrillas 41. Sixty-five more people--many of them children--were killed when they stepped on land mines, most of which were planted by the guerrillas, he said. He reported a total of 1,111 combat and noncombat deaths. An overall casualty count of nearly 10,000 killed or wounded was announced by the U.S.-backed military and the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front last week.