Rebels Suspected as Car Bomb Kills 4 at Hotel in Peru

In a sign that leftist guerrillas may be recovering their strength, a car bomb exploded outside a luxury hotel-casino here Wednesday, killing four people and wounding 13.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but police said the way in which it was carried out indicated that it was the work of the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, a Maoist group that terrorized Peru for more than a decade before its leader was captured in 1992.

About 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, two people brandishing automatic weapons burst into the casino area of the Hotel Maria Angola and ordered guests to lie on the floor, said Marco Rosell, head of hotel security. Two of their colleagues took advantage of the diversion to drive a Russian-made car in front of the hotel.

All four then fled, firing shots in the air and shouting “Car bomb!” Rosell said. Moments later, 175 pounds of explosives destroyed the front of the 10-story building in the Miraflores section of the capital.

The explosion killed two security guards, a casino employee and a cook in the hotel’s restaurant.

Two men and a woman were arrested after a chase and a shootout, police said, adding that at least two of the suspects were from Ayacucho, the mountain town where Sendero Luminoso was founded 25 years ago.

About 80 guests were staying in the 124-room hotel, and about 30 people were in the casino when the bomb went off.