News In Brief

Salvadorean military action takes high toll, groups charge

Two private human rights groups charged Wednesday that Salvadorean armed forces have killed thousands of civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands with ''indiscriminate'' aerial bombing, shelling, and military sweeps. A 65-page report by Americas Watch and the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights cited ''the marked decline in the number of death squad killings and disappearances'' after stern US warnings to Salvadorean security forces, but said they cannot agree that the human rights picture is improving. The two groups said the government attacks appear aimed at driving civilians out of the rebel-controlled areas, thus ''depriving the guerrillas of a civilian population from which they can obtain food and other necessities.