MANAGUA — Nicaraguan government forces launched intense raids backed by heavy equipment on Sunday in three rebellious towns of Masaya department, south of the capital, leaving several people injured, a human rights group reported.

Residents and rights groups said troops used mechanical shovels in the early hours of the day to clear barricades in three towns, attacking their defenders in the latest violence convulsing the Central American country.

“They are going to destroy Masaya, it is absolutely surrounded,” Vilma Nunez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), said.

“We are being attacked by the National Police and para-police armed with AK-47s and machine guns in our indigenous neighborhood of Monimbo,” said Alvaro Gomez, a resident.

“We are resisting with homemade bombs and stones.”

Monimbo, in southern Masaya department, has been the epicenter of resistance against the government of President Daniel Ortega since a wave of student-led protests began April 18 over a since-aborted pension reform plan.

Since then, violence has claimed at least 272 lives, according to Cenidh.

“The situation is serious,” said Alvaro Leiva, secretary of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights (ANPDH). “We need to open a corridor to evacuate the wounded.”

The latest violence came a day after some 200 students, entrenched for 20 hours in a parish church in Managua besieged by pro-government troops, were finally freed following the intercession of Catholic bishops.

That operation left two students dead and more than a dozen injured, church officials said. — AFP