Heavy Fighting Near Border

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31114, 18 July 1966, Page 11

Heavy Fighting Near Border

’ (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright; SAIGON, July 17. A United States Marine task force and elite North Vietnamese troops are locked in heavy combat today in the strategic northwestern corner of South Vietnam.

American military spokesmen reported the fighting shortly after President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam announced on Hanoi Radio

the partial mobilisation of reserve officers and rearguard forces. The spokesmen said the Marines were in “significant contact” (heavy fighting) with the North Vietnamese troops. Details of the battle were not immediately available, but the division-sized North Vietnamese force was apparently trying to seize control of the north-western corner of South Vietnam. ( Near Border The Marines, fighting at times within seven miles of the North Vietnamese border, met enemy forces in a river valley along old Highway nine, the spokesmen said. Rice paddies fill the valley floor and lead up to surrounding jungle mountains. The fighting in “Operation Hastings” raged about 42 miles north-west of the northern city of Hue and United States spokesmen said that the Marines sent the first probes into the area ten days ago and moved in force two days ago. In the Saigon area, the Northern troops attacked two South Vietnamese companies in two sudden strikes within earshot of the capital. United States spokesmen said yesterday that American planes flying through early monsoon thunderstorms have again stepped up the pace of attacks on targets in the north—hitting at missile sites, road and river transport and oil dumps.