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Peru rebels hit again in deadliest year since 1990s
29 Dec 2008 22:38:03 GMT
 Source: Reuters
LIMA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The Shining Path rebel group killed one soldier in an attack on a helicopter and wounded two others, Peru's army said on Monday after its bloodiest year fighting the guerrillas since the early 1990s.

Suspected insurgents fired on a supply helicopter on Sunday in Vizcatan, a mountainous jungle area with coca plantations 372 miles (600 km) southeast of Lima, the capital. Its fuselage was damaged and one soldier on the ground was struck by bullets and died while trying to defend it.

"The aircraft was hit by projectiles but did not crash," Defense Minister Antero Flores said on RPP radio.

The army said the Shining Path -- which moved into cocaine trafficking after its bloody war against the state collapsed in 1992 -- killed at least 25 police or soldiers this year in a series of brazen ambushes, including one that blew up a military convoy with dynamite.

Conflict has increased since August, when President Alan Garcia started sending soldiers to coca-growing zones to try to wipe out the Shining Path, a group that has largely abandoned its Maoist ideology.

Since Garcia took office in July 2006, at least 50 civilians, security officers or anti-drug workers have died in attacks carried out by the rebel group.

The size of the group has dwindled to only about 300 armed fighters from the thousands it had at the start of a civil war in 1980 that killed 69,000 people.

But its arsenal is stronger than in the past, as profits from the drug trade allow it to buy more powerful weapons, security officials have said.

Flores said the army was prepared to suffer more casualties to win back control of Vizcatan and the coca-growing regions of the Ene and Apurimac rivers.

"If you let Vizcatan become no man's land, or turn it over to the narco-terrorists, then there won't be deaths," said Flores. "But with combat there is always the risk of losses."

Carlos Tapia, an expert on the Shining Path, said the government's strategy should be overhauled to emphasize providing basic services in poor towns instead of launching military raids.

"They have misdiagnosed the problem, which has resulted in a flawed strategy," he said.

Flush with cash, the Shining Path can easily win friends in remote villages, making it harder for the government to defeat it in places where there is little in the way of clean water, healthcare or electricity.

"In these places, everybody is aligned with drug trafficking: vigilante groups, mayors, judges and even investigators," Tapia said. (Reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Vicki Allen)


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Last updated:Mon Dec 29 22:39:59 2008