Commando L Strikes

A Russian freigther in the Cuban port of Isabela de Sagua was attacked and damaged severely last night be a hit-and-run raiding party of the anti-Castro organization known as Commando L, The Miami News learned today.

News of the raid came as Russia protested to the United States about a similar attack March 17.

Fragmentary reports reaching Miami indicated the Russian vessel hit last night still was afloat, but badly in need of repair to keep it from sinking.

It also was learned that the raiders suffered no casualties and had returned safely to their "strike base" somewhere in the Caribbean Sea.

The site of this latest attack against Castro's Communist regime is the same as the March 17 raid by the Alpha 66 organization, in which a Russian ship and military camp were shelled.

Isabela de Sagua is in Las Villas province on Communist Cuba's north coast.

Members of the Commando L action group formerly belonged to Alpha 66, but broke away to form their own fighting unit because of differences with the Alpha 66 leadership.

A spokesman for Commando L said here today a radio message had been received early this morning from the raiding crew.

"The message stated that 'things went as expected, everything fine and no casualties'" the spokesman said. "We expect to have a more complete report later."

It is known that the Commando L "action" crew has been planning a strike against a Russian vessel in a Communist Cuban port for several days.

The organization had expressed hopes of sinking a Soviet vessel on the mission just carried out.

The raiders are believed to have been armed with 20 mm. cannon and 75 mm. recoilless rifles, both with armor-piercing heads in ammunition. The 75 mm. rifle was said by experts to have been designed as an anti-tank weapon.

By noon, neither Havana nor Moscow had acknowledged the attack.

In the wake of the Alpha 66 raid, Havana radio reported that some wounded sailors had been taken to a hospital, but the broadcast did not mention an attack. Moscow radio issued a quick denunciation.

Subsequently, the U.S. State Department said, it "is strongly opposed to hit-and-run attacks on Cuba by splinter refugee groups" because such attacks do not really "weaken the grip of the Castro regime."

Today, in a note delivered to the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the Soviet Union formally held the United States responsible for the March 17 attack on the freighter Lgov.

The strong message declared the Soviet government "expects the U.S. government to take decisive measures to prevent suck provocative actions in the future."

The note asserted "without material support from the U.S. government and without the supply of American arms and vessels the groups of traitors to the Cuban people now hiding on U.S. territory could not engage in this kind of provocation."