US-trained Salvadorans hunt guerrilla camps

Close to 2,000 US-trained Salvadoran soldiers launched a search-and-destroy operation near El Salvador's Honduran border to clean out leftist guerrilla encampments, the Army said.

The drive will advance slowly, lasting more than a week, because of the mountainous terrain and heavy rainfall in the region, military sources said.

The operation is the first launched by the newly formed Belloso Battalion, whose soldiers recently returned from an intensive military course in the United States.