Salvadoran Rebels Trap U.S. Advisors

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador--Armed guerrillas raided a luxury hotel before dawn yesterday, trapping dozens of foreigners, including eight U.S. Green Berets.

Both NBC and CBS television reported last night that all the Americans, including military personnel, were freed unharmed. The reports were attributed to the U.S. Embassy but the reports were refuted late yesterday by the Red Cross and sources from the scene.

Red Cross spokesperson Marie Aude Lude said 17 people had been evacuated safely in the early evening but that it appeared no U.S. military personnel or guerrillas were among those evacuated.

"All the people are over 30, and none of them looks like an American soldier," she said.

Knowledgeable diplomatic sources, who insisted on anonymity for security reasons, said the American soldiers barricaded inside the hotel will spend the night there. The eight are described as heavily armed Green Berets from Fort Bragg. N.C.

Instead, it appeared a standoff was continuing--and would continue through the night--inside the El Salvador Sheraton Hotel's VIP Tower, more than 17 hours after rebels surprised the government with their assault in an upper-class neighborhood of this capital.

Lude said none of the evacuees--who were French-speakers, Spanish-speakers and English-speakers--appeared to be guerrillas.

Earlier yesterday, the guerrillas claimed they had captured four U.S. military advisors. But information from the occupied section of the tower indicated that the heavily armed Americans were barricaded in one or two rooms and controlled the fourth floor hallway, only about 20 yards from where the guerillas were on the third and fifth floors.

One of the barricaded Americans told reporters they had been talking with the rebels at one point early in the standoff. The Americans said they had fired no shots and would not fire unless fired upon.

"We're here, because we don't feel we can leave safely," said one of the soldiers, who declined to provide his name.

One source said it was unclear whether the guerrillas had slipped out of the hotel, or were still inside. The rebels may have left behind mines or booby-traps, he said.

"Before daylight it would be difficult to be sure they'd be safe and secure coming out," said the source.

Col. Carlos Aviles of the Salvadoran army also said the American soldiers remained inside the hotel. He said it was unclear whether any rebels remained on the hotel grounds.

The hotel manager told The Associated Press by telephone that there was still sporadic firing around the building.

State Department sources said last night that many of the guests trapped in the Sheraton Hotel, including several Americans, had been allowed to leave the building in the custody of the Red Cross.

The sources, who declined to be identified, did not say whether American military personnel were among those who were freed.

Soldiers from an armored personnel carrier earlier rescued the secretary general of the Organization of American States, who had been in a different part of the Sheraton Hotel when the guerrillas mounted the bold attack.

At 5:30 p.m. [6:30 p.m. EST], a half-hour before the 6 p.m. curfew, Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, arrived at the hotel.