Snipers Wound 7 U.S. Air Force Personnel in Honduras

Snipers fired automatic weapons at a bus carrying 28 U.S. Air Force personnel Saturday, and seven were injured, a U.S. officer said.

A leftist group, the Morazanista Front of Honduran Liberation, claimed responsibility, said Maj. Bruce Jessup, a spokesman for U.S. troops based in the Central American nation.

Three attackers fired on the bus about 1 p.m. six miles north of Tegucigalpa, the capital, he said.

He said two Americans were seriously wounded. They were taken to a civilian hospital in Tegucigalpa and underwent surgery. Hospital officials said injuries of the other five were not life-threatening.

“The Americans did not have time to return fire, although there were some security personnel on the bus,” Jessup said.

He said the service personnel are members of the U.S. Air Force but would not identify them by unit or release the names of the injured.

A White House spokesman, Sean Walsh, said in Washington: “We deplore any action against U.S. citizens. We’ll be working closely with the Honduran government on the investigation.”

The leftist group, founded in 1979, is thought to be an arm of the Communist Party.

It claimed responsibility for the last major attack on U.S. forces in Honduras, on July 13, 1989, when a bomb was thrown at nine U.S. Army military police in civilian clothes as they passed a disco in La Ceiba, 120 miles north of Tegucigalpa. Seven were injured.

The front has also claimed other attacks on U.S. forces.

At the time of Saturday’s attack, the soldiers were returning to Soto Cano from a recreational tour at Tela, a northern Honduran city on the Caribbean coast, Jessup said.

The four victims with less serious injuries were taken by helicopter to Soto Cano, where U.S. troops on military maneuvers in Honduras are frequently based, he said. The uninjured troops also were flown to the base, and all leaves there were canceled, Jessup said.

The U.S. personnel have been building roads and airstrips in Honduras, Jessup said. He said they had been working in an area south of Tegucigalpa before spending several days in Tela.

The United States keeps several thousand personnel stationed in Honduras, most of them at Palmerola, a U.S.-built base several miles from Tegucigalpa.

For about a decade, the U.S. military has frequently conducted exercises in Honduras, which borders Nicaragua. U.S.-backed Contras have been living in Honduran jungle camps near the border.