6 Killed, 16 Injured in Bombing of Salvador Labor Union Office

SAN SALVADOR —  A powerful bomb exploded at the headquarters of the country’s largest labor union today, killing six people and wounding 16.

The bomb exploded in front of the headquarters of the National Federation of Salvadoran Workers, the country’s largest labor organization. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Salvadoran leftist rebels had earlier announced a new offensive against the right-wing government, and a human rights group separately blamed the country’s armed forces for a predawn bombing that injured four people, including a Los Angeles woman and a 4-month-old baby.

Brenda Hubbard, 41, of Los Angeles, who was injured during the explosion, told reporters that she was sleeping at the offices of the Committee of Mothers of the Disappeared and Political Prisoners, known as COMADRES, when a bomb exploded at the entrance about 2:30 a.m.

“It has definitely got to be the military forces,” Hubbard said of the bombing.

Hubbard called on the United States to withdraw its $90-million annual military aid to El Salvador. “I am so angry,” she said. “I am an American, and it’s my money that is paying for all this destruction and killing.”