REBEL GAINS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28981, 24 August 1959, Page 11

REBEL GAINS

Heavy Fighting In Northern Laos

(NJL. Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) VIENTIANE (LAOS), August 23. Laotian Cabinet and Army leaders held meetings all day yesterday as Western diplomats and military attaches reported a worsening military situation in the little IndoChinese Kingdom. Top-level diplomats and military observers were unanimous in their belief that the guerrilla war in the north-eastern provinces had 'taken a more serious turn. ' The Laotian Government has accused Communist North Vietnam of aiding the Communist rebels in the north-east.

Heavy fighting was in progress between Royal Laotian troops and the rebels in northern Laos, according to reports quoted by the British United Press.

Several Government outposts had fallen to the Communists during the last 48 hours, the reports said.

The reports said the fighting was centred about 35 miles from the town of Sam Neua, in the province of the same name bordering on North Vietnam. According to the news agency, Communist radio reported from Hanoi, in North Vietnam, that fighting was developing “more powerfully” between the Communists and loyal forces in Sam Neua and four other provinces. It said guerrillas had joined the battle on the side of the Communist Pathet Lao forces. Sam Neua is a town in the Northern Province where Royal forces have been reported to be fighting the Communists on and off for several weeks.

A United States Embassy spokesman said yesterday that two large freight aircraft of the Formosan Civil Air Transport Company were now flying “logistical support” to rear areas of the Royal Laotian Army. He said the planes would avoid the combat areas in north-east Laos where guerrilla war has flared up with Communist rebels but that they would fly to the town of Sam Neua, which he said was not under attack. The aircraft—one C 46 and one C47—arrived in Vientiane on Friday from Teipeh. The spokesman said the new aeroplanes, which were under contract to the Laotian Army, brought to five the number of the company’s aircraft now operating in Laos.

He denied that this was in any way violating the Geneva agreement on Indo-China and said it authorised Laos to have the equivalent of eight C47s. The spokesman said he believed the company’s policy was to have American pilots and Nationalist Chinese co-pilots.