The World - News from June 13, 1986

The Salvadoran army has launched a counterinsurgency campaign to head off a possible offensive by leftist rebels to improve their position before upcoming peace talks, Gen. Adolfo Blandon, El Salvador’s top military commander, said. The rebels and the U.S.-backed government are preparing for a new round of talks in late July or August. Blandon said that troops are sweeping through guerrilla strongholds in “the principal areas of terrorist persistence.”