Adviser Believed Executed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31726, 9 July 1968, Page 13

Adviser Believed Executed

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAIGON, July 8. A senior American military adviser apparently was executed by Viet Cong troops shortly after being captured in an ambush, United States military spokesmen said today.

His body was found later with one round fired into the head, a spokesman said. The name and rank of the adviser was not immediately announced, but the description of him as senior adviser indicated that he was at least a major. The ambush took place on Saturday in Binh Thuan Province, on the sea coast about 130 miles north-east of Saigon. Full details are not yet known in Saigon. Sources said the adviser was riding in his jeep to the scene of a fight between South Vietnamese militiamen and a platoon of Viet Cong troops. United States and South Vietnamese Navy craft had

joined ground troops and aircraft in a massive effort to smash enemy forces converging on Saigon for an attack now believed planned for midJuly, the Associated Press reported. While the allied boats patrolled the Saigon River and its tributaries to intercept enemy troops, 852 s made six more raids north of Saigon yesterday and early today. An Informed American source said a significant number of the daily 852 strikes were hitting a day or so behind the moving enemy troops, indicating United States intelligence was lagging. The source said Viet Cong and North Vietnamese commanders had developed tactics to counter American ground radar surveillance that tried to pinpoint enemy troops for air and artillery strikes.