VIETNAM CONFLICT

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 15

VIETNAM CONFLICT

Night Raids Reported (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SAIGON, May 7. Viet Cong gunners killed eight civilians in a midnight mortar attack on a Mekong Delta hamlet, a South Vietnamese military spokesman said today. Three others were wounded when the guerrillas fired four mortar shells into Mo Bia, only a short distance from the town of Rach Gia, about 114 miles south-west of Saigon. A United States military spokesman said there were eight rocket and mortar attacks during the night against American and South Vietnamese installations and towns, but ground fighting remained scattered and light. United States Marine artillery fired twice into the Demilitarised Zone between the two Vietnams yesterday after spotter planes had sighted groups of North Vietnamese troops. At least 141 Communists were killed and 29 were captured in an assault by a regiment of North Vietnamese on an American outpost near Cambodia.

Military observers predict heavier fighting in the frontier area north-west of Saigon. An American helicopter crashed yesterday 75 miles north of Saigon, killing 34 persons and injuring 35 in the worst helicopter disaster of the war.

The dead included the two American crew members and 32 South Vietnamese soldiers. Another member of the crew and 34 South Vietnamese were injured.