By Terry Wade and Marco Aquino LIMA, April 14 (Reuters) - Leftist rebels in Peru will launch more attacks against the army, a commander of a remnant band of Shining Path guerrillas said after their eleventh deadly ambush in rugged coca-growing regions this year. "We will fight militarily those who defend imperialism and the government, and they are the armed forces and the police," Victor Quispe Palomino, who identified himself by his rebel name, Comrade Jose, said in a call to a radio station. His comments, which surfaced on Tuesday, came five days after suspected rebels killed 14 soldiers in two ambushes in Ayacucho province, birthplace of the Maoist guerrilla group. A series of clashes has ended several years of relative calm and though the size of the Shining Path has dwindled to about 300, it has bought more powerful weapons with profits from the drug trade in the world's No. 2 cocaine producer. At least 30 soldiers have died in fights with the group since August, when the government said it would try to take back control of the coca-rich Ene and Apurimac valleys. The rebels have retaliated against the army's forays by planting land mines, booby traps and ambushes to blow up military convoys. The Shining Path waged a war against the state for years, but when its leaders were captured in the early 1990s holdout members of the group mostly abandoned their ideological fight and went into drug trafficking. Critics say dozens of dead soldiers show President Alan Garcia's plan to root out the rebels is flawed, and the army cannot track the rebels in dense jungle. "The Shining Path is using more and more fire power in each attack," said Fernando Rospigliosi, a former interior minister. "The plan has not produced results and the government keeps on insisting on the wrong strategy." Garcia's plan includes sending the army to capture rebels and employing government agencies to build schools and hospitals in towns that have missed out on a wave of foreign investment that has swept the Andean country. "The terrorists won't hold us back," Garcia said. "Our armed forces are trained to smash them." Like top cocaine producer Colombia, Peru receives anti-drug money from the United States and supports programs to eradicate coca fields. But the Shining Path has deep pockets that allow it to buy allegiances in dirt-poor towns where people often rely on coca planting for income, police say. And the army says its efforts are hobbled by human rights groups that file lawsuits against it whenever it kills a rebel. "It's pathetic," said Otto Guibovich, the army's commanding general. (Editing by Todd Eastham)
A broken suspension bridge is seen after an accident in the town of Coracora in the Andean city of Ayacucho April 13, 2009. The bridge was packed with school children when ...
