Guerrillas Government

Colombian rebels killed eight police officers and captured at least 30 others at a remote jungle station in what appeared to be one of the biggest blows against security forces in years, police said Sunday. The scale of Saturday's attack by hundreds of members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, became clear Sunday when police and army reinforcements reached the northern rain-forest town of San Marino.

A third round of U.N.-sponsored peace talks between Salvadoran guerrillas and government representatives begins in the Costa Rican capital Friday in the shadow of a rebel threat to launch a major new military offensive should the negotiations fail to produce concrete results.

Colombian guerrillas and government representatives have scheduled a meeting Wednesday in neighboring Venezuela to resume peace talks begun in June. Despite ongoing talks, guerrillas have intensified attacks. Last week, 11 people were killed in a fight between members of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), the largest guerrilla army, and a civilian self-defense group in rural Tolima province.

Afghan guerrillas battled government forces in four provinces and fired rockets into Kabul, the capital, the government said. In all, nearly 280 people were reported killed in the fighting, including 12 in Kabul. The government said the main fighting was around Jalalabad and Khost in eastern Afghanistan, Kandahar in the south, and Herat in the west. In neighboring Pakistan, a Foreign Ministry official denied an American newspaper report that Pakistani officials had ordered an unsuccessful rebel attack on Jalalabad that began March 6. Pakistan's military has played a key role in supporting the rebels, who have suffered heavy casualties around Jalalabad, and the fighting there appears to be a stalemate.

Heavy fighting between Afghan guerrillas against government and Soviet troops was reported around Kabul airport by Western diplomats in Pakistan on Tuesday. The diplomats, quoting reports from Kabul, also said that Soviet troops appear to be launching a new offensive in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital.

Leftist rebels agreed Wednesday to formal talks to end Peru's month-old hostage crisis on the condition that everything--including freedom for their jailed comrades--be on the table. The announcement--made via two-way radio from the Japanese ambassador's residence--raised hopes of a potential breakthrough in the hostage crisis. The standoff began Dec. 17 when rebels of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement seized about 500 guests during a party at the residence.

A CIA plane en route from Zaire to Angola carrying military and other equipment for U.S.-backed rebels crashed this week, killing at least five Americans and an undetermined number of guerrillas, government officials said Wednesday.

Forty-eight hours before the formal end to El Salvador's civil war, leftist guerrillas, government officials and mediators were locked in intense negotiations Sunday over important political reforms including long-term security for former rebel fighters. The brinkmanship comes even as U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle and other regional leaders prepare to attend Tuesday's ceremony in San Salvador marking the conclusion of 12 years of war between rebels and U.S.-backed forces.

Khmer Rouge shelling Thursday forced the evacuation of U.N. peacekeepers from a rural area where the United Nations has been trying to register people to vote, officials said. Fighting between the guerrillas and government forces had forced some U.N. personnel from their posts in the past, but this was the first time U.N. officers have suggested that the Khmer Rouge was directly attacking U.N. workers. The U.N. military commander in Cambodia, Lt. Gen.