New Fighting Closes U.S.Embassy in San Salvador : Central America: Shooting reported in Americans’ residential area, but U.S. personnel are reportedly safe.

Fresh battles in San Salvador today forced the U.S. Embassy to close down, and left-wing rebels demanded the evacuation of leading hotels in embattled districts.

As the crash of exploding mortar shells resounded through the fashionable western part of the capital, security guards and Salvadoran army officers at the bunker-like U.S. mission said it had been closed until further notice due to the fighting.

A Western diplomat said there was shooting throughout Escalon, San Benito and Lomas de San Francisco, where most of the U.S. personnel live.

“It’s not safe ... to drive the streets to go to work,” he said.

Radio Venceremos, the radio station of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation front (FMLN), meanwhile, called for the evacuation of three leading hotels in the area--the Sheraton, the Hotel Terraza and the Presidente.

In Washington, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said the rebels shot their way into several homes, including the residence of a U.S. Embassy officer, but were driven out by Salvadoran armed forces.

“At the moment it is our belief that all United States personnel and their families are safe,” Baker told reporters at the White House.

“This might represent something of a desperation effort by the FMLN,” he said.

A soundman for the U.S.-based Spanish-language television station Univision was hit by a bullet in the shoulder while covering battles in Escalon, where the guerrillas had seized parts of the Sheraton last Tuesday.

A photographer said he saw an armored personnel carrier that had been blown up early today in an apparent guerrilla ambush about four blocks from the Sheraton.

The bodies of five dead soldiers lay on the street nearby, and guerrillas picked through their pockets, searching for ammunition and valuables.

The fighting around Escalon followed a night of battles in areas stretched along a southeastern arc, witnesses and residents reported.

Using the darkness of night, guerrillas slipped into positions only about 1,000 yards from the headquarters of the armed forces chiefs of staff, an army spokesman said.

“They used mortars and rifles, but they failed to do damage to the building,” he said, adding that the casualty toll stood at 12 guerrillas and five soldiers dead since the fighting flared.