Human-rights group says Guatemalans 'massacred'

Guatemalan forces massacred more than 2,600 Indians and peasant farmers, including children, in a counterinsurgency program launched after Gen. Efrain Rios Montt came to power in March, Amnesty International said.

The worldwide human-rights organization said army units and newly formed ''civil defense'' units destroyed entire villages and carried out mass executions in at least 112 incidents between March and July. Guatemalan officials said the dead were guerrillas who died in clashes with government forces or civilians killed by guerrillas.