July 28, 1957.p. 1.
By R. Hart Phillips
Special to the New York Times.
HAVANA, July 27—Fidel Castro and a force of about 200 armed and uniformed insurgents swooped down out of the Sierra Maestra early today to attack the former field headquarters of the Cuban Army at a sugar mill in Estrada Palma.
Col. Pedro Barrera, the chief of Army operations against the rebels in Oriente Province, had evacuated the mill several days ago, leaving only eight guards.These soldiers were overpowered by the attackers, who were reported to have made off with arms, ammunition and supplies left at the installation.
The attack occurred at 2 A.M.Before withdrawing to the hills, the rebel force released the captured soldiers.No casualties were reported.
Colonel Barrerra arrived at Estrada Palma this afternoon with 400 soldiers to take up the pursuit of the rebels, according to a report from Manzanillo, fifteen miles from the scene.
The Cuban Army headquarters at Camp Columbia in Havana, issued a communiqué this afternoon stating that the rebels had attacked the Estrada Palma post, which it said was manned by a sergeant and seven other soldiers.The rebels were repulsed and the soldiers pursued them into the hills, it asserted.
In withdrawing, the rebels burned an outlying building formerly used by the Army headquarters for storage of medical supplies, the communiqué added.
Colonel Barrera, in announcing the transfer of his headquarters eastward to the small town of Maffo, about fourty-five miles from Santiago de Cuba, had said Wednesday that the new location would be nearer the Sierra Maestra and afford better conditions for action against the rebels.
In Havana, a special court yesterday ordered the release of Faustino Perez and six other political prisoners, who had been on a hunger strike in the Principe Fortress jail to protest against ill treatment of political prisoners in the Isle of Pines Prison.Señor Perez was a member of the original insurgent party headed by Señor Castro that landed from a small yacht on the south coast of Oriente Province from Mexico last Dec. 2.
It is also said that he led Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times into the Sierra Maestra to interview Señor Castro in February, the first time to rebel leader was seen by a United States newspaper man after the landing.
Reports from the provinces this morning told of bombings, sabotage of power lines, fires set by flaming bottles of gasoline, and other acts of violence yesterday.These marked the anniversary of an attack by Señor Castro and a group of youths on Moncada military post in Santiago in 1953, in which 100 persons were killed.
Seven public schools were reported to have been burned in the interior last night.This raised the total of schools burned by followers of Señor Castro to more than 200, according to Cuban officials.