City Of Tay Ninh Under Attack

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 15

City Of Tay Ninh Under Attack

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SAIGON, September 11.

Two columns of Communist troops attacked Tay Ninh City last night and heavy fighting was going on today inside the city and in villages on the southern and eastern approaches, the Associated Press reported.

American jets raked Communist troops barely half a mile from the city and allied troops moved to halt the thrust. Tay Ninh, a city of 200,000 people, lies on a major invasion route to Saigon.

All major installations inside the city appeared to be in allied hands today but a senior American officer on the scene said that mixed Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops had penetrated further than during a first wave of assaults on August 20.

As in the previous assaults on the city, Communist gunners opened up last night and

early this morning with rocket and mortar attacks on South Vietnamese and American camps and artillery bases in the area.

Tay Ninh city, just below what is known as War Zone C, is the capital of the province north-west of Saigon. It lies near Cambodia and the sanctuaries from which the Communist command launched the February Tet offensive and follow-up assaults. • The size of the Communist thrust could not be immediately judged. One officer estimated at least three to four hundred men were in the

two columns which struck during the night. One of these knifed into the south-east of the city and the other into the north-east suburbs —roughly the same areas as last month. The fighting was reportedly raging in the area of the large temple which is the central religious shrine of th? Cao Dai sect, which flourishes in Tay Ninh. Reports from officers in Tay Ninh said that in addition to the columns inside the city, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces were holding several villages to the south and to the east. The rocket and mortar attacks during the night hit several special forces camps and the United States 25th Division fire base “Buell” which repulsed a savage assault last month. Some shells fell inside residential districts of Tay Ninh city itself.

Allied intelligence has indicated increased movement round Tay Ninh for several weeks.

Meanwhile, Saigon police turned up fresh evidence that a major Communist force is already inside the capital awaiting orders to begin fighting. Acting on a tip, police arrested four men, one identified as a North Vietnamese soldier. They also seized two AKS4 automatic rifles, ammunition and a Viet Cong flag. Hundreds of such caches and cells are said to be in the city.