VIETNAM WAR FLARES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 17

VIETNAM WAR FLARES

\(N.Z.P.A. Reuter —Copyright) SAIGON, October 19. The Vietnam war flared on two fronts yesterday with the Americans resuming bombing of the eastern part of the demilitarised zone and the Viet Gong establishing a terror offensive in Saigon.

United States aircraft made a total of nine raids into the demilitarised z o n e—which separates the two Vietnams. In Saigon a Viet Cong grenade blast wounded five Americans.

The blast came in the wake of a terrorist mine explosion on Monday near a United States Army billet which killed an American serviceman and a Vietnamese woman, and wounded seven Americans and three Vietnamese.

After yesterday’s explosion all Americans in Saigon were warned by United States authorities to beware of guerrilla attacks, and to stay in their billets until picked up for duty by military transport. Elsewhere in Saigon a policeman was shot and his pistol seized. Bombing of the eastern sector of the demilitarised zone —through which the Americans claim North Vietnamese troops are infiltrating—ended about mid-August. But on October 14 the United States declared itself ready to resume the attack if necessary. Regular Patrols The eastern sector is the only part of the zone regularly patrolled by the joint Indian-Canadian-Polish International Control Commission supervising the 1954 peace accords. An American spokesman

said United States planes hit a storage area in the sector. There were nine raids in the zone—including the eastern sector, he said. Meanwhile, the Viet Cong “Liberation Radio” has called

for a terror campaign to commemorate the execution of Nguyen Van Troi, who tried to assassinate the United States Defence Secretary, Mr Robert McNamara, in 1964. On the central coast, United States air cavalrymen clashed with a Viet Cong company in a seven-hour battle. Conventional fighting continued in other areas.

Continuing heavy weather reduced American bombing activity over North Vietnam, but returning pilots claimed the destruction or damage of 28 barges, four bridges, a causeway, two anti-aircraft missiles and gun sites. The North Vietnam Army High Command yesterday hailed the alleged downing of the one thousand five hundredth United States aircraft over the country last Friday. “This great victory proves that the ruling workers’ party leadership is extremely correct and clear-sighted and that the North Vietnamese armed forces and people are fully capable of defeating the

United States war of aggression,” the command said in a communique quoted by the North Vietnam News Agency. “Our Army and people, united as one man around the Vietnam Workers’ Party, the (north) Government and President Ho Chi Minh, are resolved to defend Socialist North Vietnam and wholeheartedly support the patriotic war of resistance of the Army and people in South Vietnam,” the communique added.