CAMBODIAN BATTLE

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32392, 3 September 1970, Page 11

CAMBODIAN BATTLE

New Anti-Govt Troops Join (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) PHNOM PENH, September 2. i Communist reinforcements poured j into the Srang area where Cambodian . , troops began launching fresh assaults I today to recapture the village and close I off a major Communist infiltration and i supply route south-west of Phnom I Penh.

The military High Command reported that a regiment of Cambodian infantry had pushed to within 800 yards of a battalion post abandoned by Government troops on Sunday at the start of the four-day battle.

[the recapture of Srang was not the key objective for the Government counter-attack but that the aim was to kill as many Communist soldiers as possible. For this reason, he said, the High Command welcomed Communist reinforcements on the battlefield. Cambodian strength in the Srang area was about 1200 and the Communist reinforcements would mean the Government troops were now outnumbered. Hillside Pagoda One major worry of local battlefield commanders—a hillside pagoda with a perfect view of the battlefield and loaded with Communist mortars—was apparently still in business today. N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported from Saigon that South Vietnamese Government troops supported by helicopters and aircraft killed 51 Viet Cong in the Mekong Delta yesterday.

He said that Government troops had not entered Srang itself.

The regiment ran into a solid wall of Communist fire yesterday and suffered serious casualties before the fighting died down at nightfall. The command spokesman said that the Cambodian air force hit Communist positions during the night, while ground troops continued to fire critically short Communist-made 122 mm. artillery rounds into Communist positions round (he town 30 miles south-west of Phnom Penh. A major Communist camp had been set up for some time in the mountain range which begins just outside of Srang This apparently was the reason for the Communist push, to open a major supply route towards South Vietnam, .officers on the scene said.

the South Vietnamese Military Command said that a military dependant was killed and 23 other persons wounded by Viet Cong mortar fire which hit a training centre 103 miles south-west of Saigon late last night. United States troops of the Americal Division killed five North Vietnamese without loss in a clash 25 miles southeast of Quang Ngai, the United States Command reported.

The High Command said that about 1200 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong opened the attack and that important reinforcements had been seen moving into the area yesterdav.

The spokesman said that although the Cambodian Air Force was unable for tactical reasons to deliver criticallyneeded close air support during the fighting yesterday, United States-built T2B planes had bombed Communist posi tions during the night. Lack Explained “We are not so rich in planes,” the spokesman said in explaining the lack of air strikes yesterday. In Vietnam such air strikes would have been automatic and continuous and the inability to deliver them yesterday at Srang helped to account for the serious Government casualties during toe-to-toe fighting outside the village. In all, some 25 Cambodians had been killed in the fourday battle and at least 50 seriously wounded, commanders at the scene said. Communist casualties were unknown but the spokesman said that they were believed to be heavy after the night air strikes. The spokesman said that