LIMA, Peru (AP) - Police have arrested the leader and two members of an urban cell of the Shining Path rebel group behind a car bombing that killed 10 Peruvians near the U.S. Embassy, officials said Thursday.

The explosion, the worst terrorist attack in Peru in five years, came three days before President Bush visited this Andean nation in March.

"We have decapitated this cell of the Shining Path, but we must remain vigilant," Interior Minister Gino Costa said.

Gen. Marco Miyashiro, the head of Peru's counterterrorism police, identified Wilbert Elki Meza Majino, 31, as the leader of the Lima-based cell and Giovanna Anaya, 23, and Pilar Sulema, 27, as key lieutenants. The three were arrested Aug. 22, he said.

Police also raided an internet cafe on Aug. 28 that the Shining Path was operating to help finance operations, Miyashiro said.

Three other people accused of carrying out the car bombing were arrested in May. The attack raised concerns that the largely defeated Shining Path was plotting a comeback.

The Shining Path launched its campaign to overthrow the government and install a communist state in 1980. The group frequently used car bombings, sabotage and assassinations, although violence dropped off significantly following the arrest of founder Abimael Guzman in 1992.

Fighting has killed 30,000 people in Peru in the past two decades, including non-combatants, rebels, police agents and soldiers.

Costa said that small bands of the guerrillas continue to operate in isolated river valleys in the Amazon jungle region, where they have become entwined with drug traffickers

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