News In Brief

Salvadorean Army suffers its biggest loss of civil war

The Salvadorean Army said more than 100 soldiers died last Friday when the US-designed garrison at El Paraiso, 30 miles north of San Salvador, briefly fell under rebel control. It was the military's greatest loss so far in the four-year-old civil war against Marxist-led insurgents.

The Army announced the losses Tuesday as sources said the military, bowing to US pressure to crack down on rightist death squads, had sent officers linked to the bands into diplomatic exile.

In Washington, the State Department said successful guerrilla attacks against government forces in El Salvador point to a need for increased US military assistance.