Salvador Calls Raid Start of Rebel Push

SAN SALVADOR —  Government and military leaders sought Thursday to portray a brief but noisy guerrilla attack on an air base as the start of a new rebel offensive.

The attack, which took place Wednesday night, came at a time when the U.S. Senate is debating a proposal to reduce by 50% the level of American military aid to El Salvador. The proposal provides for a restoration of military aid--to the present level of $86 million a year--if the Salvadoran guerrillas undertake a major offensive or if they refuse to take part in peace negotiations.

Although the attack was limited to a military target, was broken off after 45 minutes and caused only minor damage and no deaths, the chief of the Salvadoran air force, Gen. Rafael Antonio Villamariona, declared that it was the start of a guerrilla offensive.

It occurred at a time of high anxiety in the Salvadoran capital, with rumors swirling that the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), as the guerrillas are formally known, is planning new action on the scale of the nationwide offensive it staged last November.

Although the FMLN has encouraged such rumors in an effort to keep the government on edge, there has been no major guerrilla activity in recent weeks and no signs of an impending offensive.

At the same time, FMLN leaders have told United Nations mediators that there will be no offensive like last year’s as long as U.N.-sponsored negotiations continue. A sixth round of peace talks are scheduled in Mexico around the end of October.

On Thursday, President Alfredo Cristiani charged that the guerrillas had committed a “flagrant violation of human rights” and were sabotaging peace talks.

For their part, the rebels issued a communique denying that any “grand offensive” had begun or that civilians were targeted.