ASUNCION -- Six men were arrested in northern Paraguay for their alleged links to a Dec. 31 attack on a remote military post, police announced Monday.

National Police commander Viviano Machado told reporters that the arrests were carried out on Sunday during an operation in Kurusu de Hierro, a peasant settlement in the northern province of Concepcion.

The arrested men were identified as Crispin Martinez, Americo Fernandez Romero, Nestor Damian Fernandez, Sebastian Martinez Valenzuela and brothers Hector Martinez Vera and Alcides Martinez Vera.

The six were taken by helicopter to the military base set up around the destroyed military post, which is in Tacuati.

The self-styled Paraguayan People's Army, or EPP, was blamed for burning the post after overcoming the sentry on duty and stealing two machineguns and two ammunition cartridges.

The leftist EPP also was blamed for destroying two years ago a police station in the isolated town of Concepcion.

Machado said that the six men are charged with providing logistical support to the EPP, which is also blamed for burning tractors and other machinery of soy growers in the region.

The Paraguayan government last Friday ordered a broad deployment of army troops in three central and northeastern provinces to pursue the EPP squadron and guarantee security in the zone, where landless militants recently have been occupying farms.