SOME U.S. TROOPS LEAVE Cambodian Coast Patrolled

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32296, 14 May 1970, Page 17

SOME U.S. TROOPS LEAVE Cambodian Coast Patrolled

(N Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SAIGON, May 13.

Elements of the United States 9th Infantry Division were withdrawn yesterday from the Parrot’s Beak sector of Cambodia in the first pull-out of American forces, the United States command announced in Saigon, United Press International reported.

But American and South Vietnamese forces extended their operations with naval patrols along the Gulf of Thailand coast in Cambodia to prevent Communist vessels from supplying their beleaguered troops.

The United States Command announcement this morning said “elements” of the 9th Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade were pulled back to South Vietnam | from the top of the Parrot’s Beak about 35 miles west of Saigon.

Official spokesmen would j not discuss the numbers involved, but military sources said that 1000 to 1500 American soldiers were pulled back. The move left 17.000 United States troops still on Cambodian soil.

The 9th Infantry Division entered the Parrot's Beak last Thursday to join South Vietnamese forces campaigning against Communist sanctuaries in the area. After Promises Their withdrawal came after promises by President Nixon last week that the first American forces would be pulled out by mid-week. The President said that the bulk of United States staff would be out of Cambodia by mid-June and that all Americans would be withdrawn by June 30. The United States Command in Saigon said that the new naval patrol move was not a blockade. It said that naval craft would patrol the southernmost part of the Cambodian coast where it swept round the South Vietnamese island of Phuquoc, N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported. The Phnom Penh Government has been told of the move, which was not intended to interfere with normal shipping or fishing boats, the command said. ‘Logical Extension’ Military sources said that the patrols were a logical extension of South Vietnamese and American drives into Cambodia to hit at guerrilla sunnlies and base camps. They estimated that at least 80 per cent of the huge arms caches found in Cambodia in the last two weeks came through the port of Sihanoukville rather than along the Ho Chi Minh trail from North Vietnam. Sihanoukville had been closed for some time, the sources added, but it was expected that the guerrillas would devise new methods of bringing supplies into Cambodia, probably by junk, which would meet oceangoing freighters at sea. then move into deserted beaches War suoplies flowed into South Vietnam in this manner in the early davs of the war until increased Naw patrols forced the North Vietnamese to use Sihanoukville.

The sources said that the loss of the port and the risks Involved in encountering a naval patrol might have forced the North Vietnamese to consider floating suppliesi down the Mekong from Laos.! They speculated that this! might be the reason for their! take-over of several important towns along the Mekong and much of eastern Cambodia.

The sources did not say what action would be taken to disrupt any river supply route.

N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reports from Phnom Penh today said that the Viet Cong had launched a fresh attack on the strategic Mekong ferry crossing town of Kompong Cham, where South Vietnamese boats were making a second mass evacuation of refugees. The town is 80 miles northeast of Phnom Penh.

Ten South Vietnamese patrol boats made the trip from the ferry today to join a fleet of boats carrying more refugees. But reports from Kompong Cham said that the Viet Cong appeared to be holding the river's eastern bank. One resident there said that intermittent exchanges of artillery and mortar and ! small arms fire were heard i across the Mekong yester[day where the river was 500 yards wide. The Viet Cong attack on the ferry—one of the two strategic links across the Mekong—comes after Sunday’s capture of Neak Leung ferry, 30 miles south-east of Phnom Penh. United Press International reported that other American units operating in Cambodia over an area of 300 miles along South Vietnam’s border fought a series of clashes with Communist forces yesterday. Spokesmen said that 41 Communists were slain and the Americans lost seven killed and 49 wounded. Eight Americans were killed in South Vietnam yesterday when a unit of the Americal Division detonated an artillery round armed as a booby trap near Due Pho, 305 miles north-east of Saigon. In Saigon, terrorists set off a 151 b to 201 b explosive charge at an American officers' quarters early today which wounded four civilians. Vice-President Nguyen Cao

Ky of South Vietnam described the naval operation along the Cambodian coastline yesterday as a “blockade,” but United States Headquarters disclaimed that term and said only suspected North Vietnamese and Viet Cong supply ships were being stopped. President Nguyen Van Thieu has said South Vietnam has no deadline for pulling its forces out of Cambodia and there is no limit on the

extent of their penetration, a statement seen as a direct warning to the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. The United States Command announced that American casualties in Cambodia now numbered 95 dead and 401 wounded. South Vietnamese losses were not immediately available. Their joint operations have [uncovered caches containing ,8025 rifles, 1051 heavy weapions, 1859 tons of rice, 1449 tons of ammunition, 163 vehicles, 16 tons of medical supplies and big petrol and oil dumps. Military sources in Saigon say that President Nixon’s deadline of June 30 for Americans to be out of Cambodia may not give them enough time to uncover all caches in various operational areas. Equipment recovered so far is only a fraction of that in the area, they say.