The prospects for peace dimmed further in recent months as the guerrillas launched their largest offensive in a year, fortified with sophisticated antiaircraft missiles smuggled from Nicaragua.

Mr. Mwiseneza said he fled the Katale camp a week ago at night after guerrillas launched an attack.

The proposed cut could be reinstated by President Bush only if the guerrillas received significant amounts of arms from abroad or launched a major offensive.

The main force was defeated in northern Lesotho, and later guerrillas launched sporadic but usually ineffectual attacks.

He said that instead of the salvos of missiles that the guerrillas usually launched, they were now firing one, two or three and running away.

He said the camp had been left undefended because the 72-man garrison there had been diverted to respond to an ambush when the guerrillas launched their assault.

Also today, the Foreign Ministry said guerrillas backed by Pakistani troops launched a major attack Saturday on the southeastern city of Khost.

Elsewhere within British territories, Communist guerrillas launched an uprising in Malaya, starting the Malayan Emergency.

Others had taken the lead in opposing United States policy toward El Salvador, but that all changed last November, when the guerrillas launched a large offensive.

From positions near the shrine, Mr. Sadr's guerrillas launched hundreds of mortar shells, forcing marines to hide behind graves or even in mausoleums.