Bombing In Storm

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31519, 6 November 1967, Page 13

Bombing In Storm

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) SAIGON, Nov. 5. United States planes, equipped with electronic target seekers, yesterday struck through a monsoon storm at transportation links near Haiphong.

In South Vietnam ground fighting flared along two fronts. A jubilant American general commanding the Loc Ninh base near the Cambodian border said his men had killed or wounded 8000 Communists in the last week, and challenged the enemy to send more men.

In the Central Highlands, where the Communists reported to be massing, possibly for a new offensive, a United States 4th Infantry Division patrol killed at least eight enemy soldiers in a clash 270 miles north-east of Saigon. United States casualties were listed as two dead and three wounded. At least 65 air strikes and sustained artillery barrages supported the patrol. At Loc Ninh, fighting died down last night, but North Vietnamese forces were reported to be bringing in reinforcements for a possible fresh round of fighting. Major-General John Hay, comamnder of the United States Ist Infantry Division, guarding Loc Ninh, challenged his Communist counterpart to keep up the fighting. He sent the challenge in a letter dropped from a plane between bombs blasting enemy positions. American 852 s have flown a series of raids against North Vietnamese base camp areas south of the Demilitarised Zone near Con Thien and in

the Central Highlands. Con Thien, a marine outpost overlooking the Demilitarised Zone, has been under intensified artillery and ground pressure from North Vietnamese troops since early in September.