Noriega in Hiding : 12 Americans Die as U.S. Troops Topple Regime : New Leaders Sworn In; Bush Ends Sanctions

U.S. troops smashed the regime of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega today and installed a new government, but the military ruler who antagonized a superpower fled into hiding and his loyalists seized some Americans.

More than 20,000 troops backed by warplanes began their invasion shortly after midnight Tuesday under a full moon, pounding Panamanian military installations in and around the capital with mortar, cannon and machine-gun fire.

In the early afternoon, smoke rose from the shattered headquarters of Noriega’s Panamanian Defense Forces and sporadic gunfire was heard in the distance. Widespread looting broke out.

In the San Miguelito neighborhood to the northeast, attack jets bombed and helicopters strafed a Defense Forces barracks atop a hill.

More than 50 bodies were counted at one hospital early in the fighting but more bodies flooded in after daybreak. Hundreds were wounded.

Officials in Washington said 11 American servicemen were killed, one was missing and 59 were wounded in the fighting. One U.S. civilian, a woman, also was reported slain.

President Bush said he ordered the invasion after Noriega said Panama was in a state of war with the United States and after the shooting death last week of a U.S. Marine lieutenant.

He said the attack was a mission to capture Noriega and bring him to trial in the United States for allegedly trafficking in Colombian cocaine.

“Gen. Noriega’s reckless threats and attacks upon Americans in Panama created an imminent danger to the 35,000 American citizens in Panama,” Bush said in an early-morning speech to the nation.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III said the action was ordered after the Administration received unconfirmed reports that Noriega intended to attack a U.S. residential neighborhood in Panama.

Panama’s national radio reported about 40 Americans had been “detained,” while Cable News Network said at least 10 Americans were held hostage. Troops loyal to Noriega were seen taking at least several Americans away from Panama City’s Marriott Hotel. (Story, P2)

Opposition leader Guillermo Endara, winner of the May 7 elections that were voided by the Noriega-controlled government, was sworn in as president and given immediate U.S. backing.

Bush later ordered that economic and political sanctions be lifted and authorized federal drug agents to pursue arrests in Panama.

But provisional President Francisco Rodriguez and Foreign Minister Leonardo Kam, both installed by Noriega, held a news conference at the Foreign Ministry office in the capital and declared they still governed.

“The government controls the situation in the country and its institutions,” Rodriguez said. “We are prepared to resist.”

It was clear, however, that U.S. troops controlled the capital.

The huge assault by Marines, infantrymen, sailors, airmen and paratroopers was the bloody pinnacle of Washington’s long war with Noriega, a bellicose career soldier who had a strong core of support among working class people and who seemed to delight in defying the mighty United States.

Noriega survived two coup attempts from within the Defense Forces that he headed, including an insurrection in October in which he was briefly captured. He survived Washington’s best non-military efforts to oust him, including harsh economic sanctions that severely depressed the economy.

There was strong evidence in the two previous coup attempts of dissatisfaction within the military with Noriega, and it was unclear how much of his support was holding after the U.S. attack.

In his address, Bush said he intends to turn over the Panama Canal as required under existing treaties. The canal was closed today for the first time in its history for a reason other than landslides, but the Panama Canal Commission said it planned to reopen the strategic waterway Thursday.

Noriega has denied the drug charges and claims the United States wanted him out so it could renege on 1977 treaties that cede control of the Panama Canal by the year 2000.

At the Ft. Clayton U.S. base outside Panama City, U.S. Charge d’Affaires John Bushnell said Noriega “may take to the hills and be very hard to find . . . but he wouldn’t have a significant force to actually do anything.”

“We will chase him, and we will find him,” Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington.

Rodriguez said more than 60 Panamanians died in the fighting, and several hundred were wounded, mostly civilians. He charged that U.S. troops in the Chorillo area, where the fighting was heaviest, did not allow the Red Cross to enter the area.

A man identified only as Major Caballero said on National Radio that “40 Americans have been detained,” but that figure could not be confirmed.