SKYRAIDERS HIT S. VIETNAM BUS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 15

SKYRAIDERS HIT S. VIETNAM BUS

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

SAIGON, Nov. 25. Two United States Navy Skyraider fighter-bombers strafed a South Vietnamese bus on Monday, a military spokesman disclosed today, the “New York Times” news service reported.

One South Vietnamese civilian was killed and three others were injured, the spokesman said.

The incident occurred near the village of Cam Lo, which lies about eight miles south of the North Vietnamese border.

The pilots, according to the spokesman, thought they were over North Vietnam. Based on the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga, they have flown only a few missions over Vietnam since their ship arrived in the South China Sea last month.

The pilots were also hampered by cloudy weather over the target. Monday’s attack was the

fifth in which American warplanes, thinking they were over North Vietnam, have struck targets in South Vietnam or the demilitarised zone that separates North from South Vietnam. In the earlier incidents; bombs were dropped on a Government outpost, a village and a bridge. The spokesman said a military investigation is under way. The attack on the bus raised questions about the strategic objectives of American missions over North Vietnam—particularly the ones that are described, as those on Monday were, as “armed route reconnaissance patrols.”