NICARAGUANS SAID TO WITHDRAW AFTER ATTACK IN HONDURAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504010002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part_ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504010002-3
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28 March 1986
Nicaraguans Said to Withdraw
After Attack in Honduras
By Robert J. McCartney
Washington Post Foreign Service
CAPIRE, Honduras, March 27-Most of the Ni-
caraguan troops who entered this Honduran border
area five days ago to battle anti-Sandinista rebels based
here have withdrawn from the country, U.S. and Hon-
duran officials said today.
The Honduran government, seeking to bring the re-
cent fighting under control, has ordered the Nicaraguan
rebels to stay in their camps and not pursue the retreat-
ing Sandinista forces, according to sources in the Hon-
duran capital of Tegucigalpa with access to intelligence
reports. They spoke on the condition that they not be
identified by name or nationality.
The Nicaraguan troops pulled back after failing to
take a rebel training center about 10 miles inside Hon-
duras that was their principal objective, according to
U.S. accounts.
In Managua, the Nicaraguan Defense Ministry said
its troops had "destroyed important enemy camps"
along the border, although it did not say the camps
were inside Honduras. Earlier, Nicaragua had denied
reports of the attack on the rebel bases.
[In Washin ton there were conflicting re orts about
whether a helico ter carrying IA em to ey s had
cras a or been forced own near duras-N
araua border.
"The majority [of the Nicaraguan soldiers] are out-
side" Honduras now, Honduran Lt.
Col. Danilo Carbajal told 60 report-
ers who were flown here this after-
noon for a visit. Another Honduran
officer estimated that only 100 Ni-
caraguan soldiers were still inside
the country.
Honduran and Nicaraguan res-
idents is this small village eight
miles from the border said there
was heavy fighting in Honduran ter-
ritory east of here on Sunday and
Monday, as the U.S. government
has said. The residents, who said
they had heard weapons being fired
and talked to persons fleeing the
fighting, also said that the cause of
the combat was a Nicaraguan incur-
sion.
The Honduran Army displayed
five bodies clad in tattered camou-
flage fatigues and said they were
Sandinista soldiers killed Tuesday.
The Army also displayed 36 AK47
automatic rifles,, four machine guns,
two rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, a missile launcher, am-
munition and other military gear
that it said had been captured from
the Nicaraguans in Honduran ter-
ritory.
The equipment on display includ-
ed several large white pieces of
cloth stamped "Sandinista Popular
Army," and one of the machine guns
had markings in Cyrillic letters,
which suggested that it might have
been manufactured in the Soviet
Union.
IJ.S. Army helicopters completed
an airlift of 600 Honduran troops to
the border region today. The airlift,
which began yesterday, was aimed
primarily at establishing a symbolic
presence along the border to assert
Honduran sovereignty, according to
Honduran and foreign sources.
The Nicaraguan withdrawal and
the Hondurans' move to rein in the
rebels, who are known as contras or
counterrevolutionaries, appeared to
mean that the controversial Ni-
caraguan incursion was winding
down.
U.S. officials now say their initial
estimates that 1,500 Nicaraguan
troops had participated in the incur-
sion may have been exaggerated.
Honduran and other sources here,
who declined to be identified, esti-
mated that at most 800 Nicaraguan
soldiers were involved. These
sources said the U.S. administration
pumped up its estimates to discred-
it the Sandinistas and thus help per-
suade Congress to approve U.S. aid
to the contras.
Honduran Col. Carbajal said,
however, that the Honduran armed
forces had monitored radio mes-
sages among Sandinista units indi-
cating that 1,200 Sandinista sol-
diers had participated. The colo-
nel's comments today marked the
first time that a Honduran govern-
ment representative has officially
estimated how many Nicraguan
troops were involved.
[The Nicaraguan Defense Min-
istry statement said 40 Sandinista
soldiers and 350 rebels were killed
in fighting along the Nicaraguan-
Honduras border in the last week.
It said 250 contras and 116 Ni-
caraguan soldiers were wounded.
The statement added that five San-
dinista soldiers were missing, in-
cluding two who are in Honduran
custody, an apparent reference to
two men presented to journalists in
Tegucigalpa Wednesday.
[It said Sandinista troops "de-
stroyed important enemy camps,
including the enemy's principal
training center."
[In Washin ton, several overn-
ment sources re orte t e owmn
o iehco ter wit employes
aboard alt ou it was unclear
w et er t e helico ter had been
fired upon or a ma unctioned.
[An administration officiaT, asked
to comment on the reports, said,
"There has been no U.S. civilian or
military helicopter fired on, crashed
or anything else."]
The U.S. government granted
$20 million in emergency military
aid to Honduras on the strength of
the incursion, which was announced
in Washington. Honduran officials
have insisted that they did not ini-
tiate the request for the aid, and
reliable sources said the U.S. gov-
ernment told the Hondurans that
extra aid would be available if they
asked for it.
Senior Honduran officers insisted
that the Honduran Army had killed
the five soldiers that were shown to
reporters and that the Hondurans
also had captured the equipment
that was on display. This was de-
nied, however, by a Honduran ser-
geant, who was interviewed sepa-
rately, and by several other well-
placed sources who declined to be
identified.
The sergeant and the other
sources said the contras had killed
the Sandinistas and captured the
equipment and given them to the
Hondurans to show the media.
Peasants here said there was
heavy fighting, including artillery
bombardments and rocket attacks,
beginning Saturday east of here.
The main Nicaraguan thrust into
Honduras took place about nine
miles to the east, according to Hon-
duran and U.S. officials.
United Press 'International re-
ported the following from Managua:
Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo,
charged in a Holy Thursday service
that the official Sandinista media
are "crushing" the nation's Roman
Catholic bishops.
"The devil can be reincarnated in
certain people who wish to divide
the church," Obando y Bravo told
about 5,000 persons celebrating
mass, and Nicaragua's bishops "are
being crushed by the official media."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504010002-3