Saigon Shelled

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31770, 29 August 1968, Page 11

Saigon Shelled

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, Aug. 28.

Viet Cong guerrillas attacked Saigon and other areas to the north of the capital with rockets while North Vietnamese troops pounded with mortar shells a resettlement camp near Da Nang last night.

Government military and police spokesmen say eight civilians were killed and several others wounded in the attacks.

Four rockets exploded in Cholon, the Chinese quarter of Saigon, in the first shelling of the capital for nearly a week, and one civilian was killed and four were injured. Twenty rockets were fired at sampans on the Dong Hai River, north of Saigon, wounding one American and one Government soldier. Airborne American troops surrounded a North Vietnamese regiment in the coastal jungle near Hue today, and sent aloft planes with loudspeakers to warn the 1200 Communists in the area to surrender or die. Since last Friday, the Americans in the area have killed 137 Communists, captured 619 weapons, overrun a large Communist base camp and seized two underground hospitals. The guerrillas also shelled the Cua Viet area, south of the Demilitarised Zone, killing three civilians and wounding four. The North Vietnamese troops infiltrated into the resettlement camp six miles from Da Nang after first attacking it with a 30-round mortar barrage. Four civilians were killed and four injured. Earlier, a United States Marines patrol had spotted

about 50 North Vietnamese soldiers 19 miles south of Da Nang and directed artillery fire at them. Twenty-four of the enemy were killed.

Other American soldiers sweeping the countryside west of the city of Tam Ky, the scene of heavy fighting earlier this week, killed 19 North Vietnamese for the loss of one of their own men. According to American figures, about 530 enemy soldiers have been killed in the area in the last four days.