Stray U.S. Fire: 136 Casualties

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 13

Stray U.S. Fire: 136 Casualties

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

SAIGON, August 9.

Sixteen persons were killed and 120 injured when United States troops defending themselves against a Viet Cong river ambush accidentally fired into a Mekong Delta village, the United States Command in Saigon said today.

Viet Cong guerrillas, strung out about three miles along the bank, fired on United States barges in two separate ambushes yesterday, about three miles from the main delta town of Can Tho. In both cases the United States forces fired back, but some of their fire went into Cai Rang village. In the first incident, nine Vietnamese civilians were killed and 23 wounded. In the second, six civilians and a soldier were killed and 82 civilians and 15 soldiers wounded, a United States Command statement said. The civilian casualties were attributed to stray automaticweapons fire. There was only one United States casualty in the first ambush, although one barge was damaged and had to be beached. The second ambush came seven hours later, from guerrillas who fired on a United States infantry battalion moving along the river in barges, with naval assault boats to cover them.

The guerrillas fired a rocket grenade at the last barge. The Americans, seven of whom were wounded, replied with a 10-minute barrage of small arms and machine-gun and artillery fire. They then called up helicopter gunships to attack the Viet Cong. “Because of the curvature of the river, fire from the boats also entered the village of Cai Rang, to the south,” the United States Command said.

A special assistance group, made up of troops, Army advisers, and South Vietnamese officials, has been sent to work with village chiefs to give medical aid and assistance to the people of Cai Rang.

No Return to Russia.—Svetlana Alliluyeva, the exiled daughter of Stalin, has said in a 15,000-word published letter that she would “never” return to Russia, has burned her Soviet passport, and would be happy to become an American citizen.—New York, August 9.