Noriega Forces Attack U.S. Post and Fire on New Panama Official

Fighters loyal to Gen. Manuel A. Noriega attacked Quarry Heights, site of the U.S. military’s Southern Command today. Assailants tried to assassinate the U.S.-installed vice president, Ricardo Arias Calderon.

Members of pro-Noriega Dignity Battalions opened fire on Arias’ car shortly after he left the National Assembly building, according to Arias aide Teni de Obaldia.

De Obaldia said Arias wasn’t injured but that two of his aides were wounded. He said Arias was with the wounded aides at Gorgas Hospital, a U.S. military hospital near Southern Command headquarters.

Arias was installed as first vice president shortly after the U.S. attack on Panama began at midnight Tuesday. He was the apparent winner in elections in May that Noriega, the military dictator, declared null.

Fighting was heavy for about an hour around the Southern Command center, which controls all U.S. forces in South and Central America.

Mortars were launched from railroad tracks below Southern Command headquarters at Quarry Heights, overlooking Panama City, at about 11:25 a.m. Snipers were reported in the hills above, and the sound of helicopters and machine-gun fire could be heard overhead.

U.S. military officials and journalists took cover under tables as the building they were in shook.

Elsewhere, the Panama Defense Forces barracks in the western city of David, 200 miles west of Panama City, raised white flags and surrendered this morning, residents of that city said by telephone.

U.S. troops battled stubborn bands of Panamanian fighters in the chaotic capital, where fighting intensified late Thursday as U.S. warplanes bombed enemy positions.

On the third day of what was originally planned as a three-day operation, President Bush told Congress he could not predict how long it would last. U.S. military commander Jim Snell said it could take months to clear the capital of Noriega loyalists and weapons.

But this morning, some remaining pockets of resistance appeared resigned to defeat.

“It’s clear that the gringos are in control of everything. We don’t have the strength they have. We don’t have any guidelines. We don’t know where Noriega, our commander, is,” said a pro-Noriega municipal official at the Tinajitas barracks.

Pentagon officials today reported 22 Americans killed, including two civilian women, 202 wounded and two military men and abducted CBS news producer Jon Meyersohn missing. It said 122 Panamanians were killed and 45 wounded.

Noriega’s whereabouts are a mystery. U.S. soldiers were too busy with snipers and house-to-house searches to challenge looters who had helped themselves to everything from designer underwear to gleaming BMWs.

OAS votes to “regret” Panama invasion. Story, P2.