‘Serious’ attack in Laos

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 16

‘Serious’ attack in Laos

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) VIENTIANE, February 5. The Laotian Prime Minister (Prince Souvanna Phouma) said yesterday that the North Vietnamese Army had launched an offensive throughout Laos and the situation was “becoming more serious every day.”

He told a press conference: “The North Vietnamese have launched a military offensive in the whole of the kingdom and Luang Prabang (the royal capital) is now within ' enemy artillery range.” In northern Laos the Neutralist headquarters at Muong Suoi on the strategic Plain of Jars has been overrun, and Communist units captured four Government

• outposts near Luang I Prabang. ’ North Vietnamese troops : also manoeuvred to advance ; their threat to the United States Central Intelligence ' Agency (C.1.A.) headquarters at Long Cheng and a refugee centre at Sam Thong. The Prime Minister rejected reports that South Vietnamese forces were in southern Laos. “In the event of such a presence I would have already been informed by the Americans.” Prince Souvanna said that he wanted no foreign troops on Laotian territory but added: “What is going on along the Ho Chi Minh Trail is a problem for the North Vietnamese and the Americans. The Royal Government has lost all control over that part of the kingdom.” His Government would protest to Britain and the Soviet Union, the co-chairmen of the 1962 Geneva Conference, over the North Vietnamese offensive.

Attack in Cambodia Communist commandos fired four Soviet-made 122-m.m. rockets into a transport camp on the edge of the Phnom Penh international airport last night, the Associated Press reported from Phnom Penh. A spokesman said that two Cambodian soldiers were wounded in the attack on the camp, which was devastated in the large assault on the airport two weeks ago.

It was the closest attack to Phnom Penh since the assault on the airport.