Sandinista troops were airlifted into remote mountains and jungles in a sweeping offensive against the Contras, and a rebel source said Friday hundreds of Contra fighters were retreating into Honduras.
In New York, a United Nations spokesman said representatives of Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government and the U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas agreed to meet Monday and Tuesday in their first direct talks in more than a year.Defense Ministry sources here, speaking on condition of anonymity, said fighting was going on in the mountains that run from the northern border with Honduras to the southeast.
They said the army struck in eight provinces where an estimated 3,000 guerrillas were holed up in small bands. The Sandinista soldiers were flown in by Soviet-built helicopters.
No information on casualties was forthcoming.
In Costa Rica, a well-placed Contra source said hundreds of rebel fighters were fleeing Nicaragua and returning to base camps in Honduras.
"Our soldiers scarcely have any ammunition and can't confront an army as powerful as the Sandinistas that is using all of its force to annihilate us," he said, speaking on the condition of not being identified.
He said the fighters who have opted to remain on Nicaraguan territory are under orders to take refuge in the most inaccessible areas possible.
The offensive coincided with President Daniel Ortega's announcement that he was ending a 19-month truce. He said he took the action because the Contras had begun returning to Nicaragua from base camps to which they retreated in 1988.
One Sandinista field commander, Col. Roberto Calderon, told government radio on Friday that more troops were deployed in the present offensive than for a 1988 campaign that helped bring about the truce.