Peru's rebel group twice as big as thought

By Marco Aquino and Terry Wade

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's military doubled its estimate for the size of the Shining Path guerrilla group to 600 on Thursday, after months of bloody ambushes in a coca-growing region that have killed at least 30 soldiers.

The deaths have piled up since August, when the army launched an offensive to retake control of the coca-rich Ene and Apurimac valleys. It has since realized there were more rebels than it had thought.

"This new estimate (of 600) is based on information we have received following attacks by the terrorists," Peru's joint chiefs of staff said.

Troops have been caught in 11 deadly ambushes this year, causing cracks in President Alan Garcia's Cabinet and criticism of his plan to stamp out people he calls "narcoterrorists."

His vice president, former admiral Luis Giampietri, said Peru must emphasise security if it hopes to remain popular with foreign investors.

Military generals this week complained that Peru took its eye off the ball after the Maoist Shining Path was all but defeated by former President Alberto Fujimori.

Funding for intelligence collection essentially dried up once Fujimori left office in 2000, and now troops say they are poorly equipped and fed.

But the generals have also stumbled. They were widely criticized this week after they admitted to sending young, inexperienced enlisted men to the jungle to root out rebels who have spent years eluding capture and setting booby traps.