Contras Suffered 4,700 Casualties

MANAGUA, Nicaragua —  Nicaraguan military forces killed or wounded more than 4,700 U.S.-backed Contras in battles during 1987, a government official said.

Col. Hugo Torres, chief of the Popular Sandinista Army’s political office, gave no breakdown of dead and wounded and no figures on government casualties in his Sunday report on rebel casualties.

Torres said that 200 Contras were killed or wounded in their Dec. 20 offensive directed at three mining villages in the northeastern part of the country.

The Contras have said that 3,000 troops backed by 4,000 support troops raided the villages in their largest offensive of the six-year war, but the government said that only about 1,000 Contras took part.