5 Soldiers Killed in Salvador Guerrilla Attacks

Leftist guerrillas attacked targets here and dynamited power stations late Tuesday and Wednesday.

The military said it suffered five dead and six wounded and that 12 civilians had been wounded. Rebel casualties were not known.

The attacks began about 10 p.m., hours after about 40,000 Salvadorans took part in a peaceful May Day parade organized by labor unions and opposition political parties.

Guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and soldiers exchanged fire near the Sheraton Hotel in the wealthy Escalon district, where heavy fighting took place last November in a major guerrilla push.

The armed forces said in a statement that FMLN guerrillas “tried to penetrate” the residence of President Alfredo Cristiani overnight. But police guards at the residence told reporters Wednesday there had been no attack on the building, although fighting had taken place nearby.

No sign emerged that the fighting signaled a new offensive in El Salvador, although skirmishes were reported in Ilobasco, 40 miles to the northeast, and in the provinces of San Miguel, San Vicente and Morazon to the east.

Half this city of 800,000 was blacked out for a time. Radio station YSKL said rebels blew up five high-voltage utility towers on San Salvador Volcano, which overlooks the city.

A rebel message protested “the total immunity that exists in this country for members of the armed forces who violate human rights.”

It cited “the stalled investigation and evident cover-up of the intellectual authors of the crime against the Jesuits,” referring to six priests murdered at Central American University in November.

A colonel, three lieutenants and five soldiers have been charged in the killings, which President Cristiani admits were committed by the military.

The rebel attacks coincided with the scheduled beginning of indirect peace talks between the government and the guerrillas, with a United Nations go-between. The guerrilla statement said the left wants the talks to proceed.

The U.S. Congress has been pressuring the Salvadoran government to make progress in investigating the Jesuit deaths and to negotiate in good faith.

The 10-year-old civil war has killed an estimated 72,000 people.