ETHIOPIA QUELLS COUP ATTEMPT

Intermittent gunfire broke out in central Addis Ababa yesterday morning after the government said it had crushed an attempted coup led by two senior generals. State radio said the two had been killed and several supporters had been arrested. The coup attempt was launched Tuesday afternoon a few hours after President Mengistu Haile Mariam left for a four-day visit to East Germany. Mr. Mengistu became head of state in 1977 and, ruling with an iron hand, set Ethiopia firmly on its present course of Soviet-style socialism and close alignment with Moscow.