Major Viet Cong Attack On Town Expected

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30770, 7 June 1965, Page 11

Major Viet Cong Attack On Town Expected

fN.Z.P A -Reuter—Copyright) T SAIGON, June 6. nrf £? n .? entrations °f Viet Cong forces appeared today to be closing i on eiku town, 240 miles north-east of Saigon, after a night of small guerrilla attacks throughout the area. ti* e f lc h" Saigon today said United States military authorities in the 3 \ <■ mu' 3 ar &e*seale Communist attack against Pleiku and its two American camps could be possibly mounted tonight. i r battalion of elite Government airborne troops and numbers of American ic icop ers were rushed to Pleiku yesterday amid reports that an attack was imminent. • 1

By today airborne troops were dug in around the American compounds and overall security was greatly increased in preparation for anything that might come, the reports said. About 600 American Army and Air Force staff are based at Pleiku, in South Vietnam's mountainous central highlands They have already been subjected to one guerrilla attack, early this year when Viet Cong guerrillas mortared the camps, killings eight Americans and wounding scores more. Last night Viet Cong units thelled Dak Sut district headquarters, about 60 miles north of Pleiku and cut the road

i and left the headquarters i building on fire and two Gov- i I ernment soldiers killed and three wounded. < ■ Two battalions of Viet Cong i are believed to be in the area < of Dak Silt. i In Saigon, the commander 1 ; of the Ranger battalion cut to pieces in last week’s Quang 1 Ngai battle, said today that ’ Viet Cong guerrillas had bay- i jonetted to death wounded I I I Government soldiers after i

leading north from Pleiku in five places. The road is now completely impassable. The road lead ing south is also thought to be impassable after a number of guerrilla attacks. The reports said that the Viet Cong attack against Dak Sut was considered a feint in order to draw Government troops into the area. The attack came in the! early hours of this morning*

overrunning the Ranger headquarters group. Major Dao Van Luoung, commander of the 39th Ranger battalion, said he had escaped this fate because an order was given to stop killing the wounded. Major Laoung was speaking to a reporter of the official Vietnam Press Agency from a Saigon hospital where he is being treated for serious head wounds.