CAMBODIAN TOWN Relief Troops Too Late In Arriving

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 17

CAMBODIAN TOWN Relief Troops Too Late In Arriving

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) PHNOM PENH, July 14. Cambodian reinforcements were reported today to have fought their way into the beleaguered resort of Kiri Rom—but arrived too late to save many of the 400man garrison who made a last-ditch stand on a hill in the town centre.

A Cambodian High Command spokesman in Phnom Perih said that the defenders fled their garrison after running out of ammunition and many had been killed.

But heavy fighting was still raging in the hill resort, 50 miles south-west of the capital, and the Government reinforcements had retaken some positions from the Viet Cong, he added. Reports from the town, which has been under siege since Saturday, satd that the defenders ran out of ammunition on Sunday and either took to the neighbouring hills or were captured by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Six members of the fallen garrison' who escaped as far as highway 4, outside the town, told journalists there that most of their comrades were either dead or hiding in the hills.

Reports from the area said that the bodies of Government troops fleeing the Viet Cong littered the jungle road out of Kiri Rom.

The command spokesman could not give specific casualty figures for the fighting. but said that the colone* in charge of the garrison had either fled to the hills or been captured He said that tough Khmer Krom troops Cambodians formerly serving as volunteers with the United States army in Vietnam—had now entered the town. He had no details of the positions they recaptured. South Vietnamese helicopter gunships were pounding the guerrilla encampments by

night and Cambodian T2Bs by day, he added. About 1000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong have been fighting in the town for the last four days. The picturesque resort is set a few miles off Highway 4—the main road between

' Phnom Penh and the key port of Kompong Som (formerly! • Slhanoukvllle). i It is thought that the Viet ’ Cong are trying to gain a commanding position high i above the road in the jungle ’ hillsides from which they can i virtually cut the road at will.