TROOPS KILLED

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 10

TROOPS KILLED

Claim By Guerrillas (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LUSAKA, April 12. The headquarters of a guerrilla alliance of Rhodesian Africans and South Africans claimed last night to have killed 114 Rhodesian and South African troops and settlers in a series of battles in the last 10 days. A communique issued by the alliance, which comprises the Rhodesian Nationalist Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Union and the African National Congress of South Africa, said South Africa was pouring reinforcements and ammunition into Rhodesia because "Rhodesia has been badly mauled." The Rhodesian Government has claimed that 48 African guerrillas and five Rhodesian security men have been killed in clashes with a large band of Africans which infiltrated Rhodesia in the last four weeks. The alliance’s communique said 22 security force members were killed 40 miles south of Salisbury on April 2, when a settler force was ambushed in mountains while tracking a contingent of guerrillas. It said 72 more, including six South Africans, were killed the next day near Mazod, 48' miles from Salisbury, and that two fanners in the Fort Victoria area were killed last Monday. In a fierce battle in the Urmimemansimbi Mountains the Rhodesians lost 16 killed and 14 wounded, it said.