Mistaken Bombing 15 Killed, 182 Wounded

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31135, 11 August 1966, Page 18

Mistaken Bombing 15 Killed, 182 Wounded

CV.Z.PA. Renter—Copyright) SAIGON, August 10. Two United States jet bombers yesterday killed 15 South Vietnamese civilians and wounded 182 others during a bombing and strafing attack in the Mekong Delta south of Saigon, a United States military spokesman said in Saigon today.

Only three Viet Cong were identified among the wounded, he said.

The spokesman said the air strike was requested urgently by the local Vietnamese province chief and approved by the Vietnamese Military Command for the delta. The request was made on the basis of intelligence reports that a Viet Cong company of about 150 men had been sighted there, he said. There was no question of any error in the map reference so far as could be determined. The two FlOO Supersabres, directed in by a spotter pilot, rained bombs and 20-; millimetre cannon on a line: of structures along a canal.; The spokesman said there, was a village called Truong Thanh in the target area eight miles west of the town of Can Tho. but he could not say whether this village had; been directly attacked. Can Tho is the largest city in the delta. The mistake was not discovered for 14 hours. Help was then rushed to the village and the wounded were started on their way to the United States aid hospital at Can Tho. “Worst Incident” It was the worst incident of mistaken killing of the war. United Press International reported. “It was a deliberate strike

because it was thought there were Viet Cong there,” a spokesman said. “I assure you that we regret this action entirely, but the strike went exactly where it was scheduled to go.” The strike was approved through all the “normal channels”, an Air Force spokesman told a Saigon news conference.