‘Nearly 10,000 casualties’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 9

‘Nearly 10,000 casualties’

(By GEORGE ESPER, of Associated Press, through N.Z.P.A.)

SAIGON, March 25. The 45-day drive into Laos cost the South Vietnamese nearly 10,000 casualties or almost 50 per cent of the total force committed, highly-placed Saigon military sources .disclosed today. Sources said that 3800 South Vietnamese troops were killed, 775 missing, and 5200 wounded. ■- These sources, who have access to casualty reports, said that the official communiques from South Vietnamese Headquarters being given to journalists were lagging or were deliberately not reporting the true losses. The latest available official figures from the South Vietnamese Headquarters listed Saigon as 1146 troops ‘killed, 245 missing, and 4235 wounded. At the same time, the . South Vietnamese Headquarters is reporting nearly 14,000 North Vietnamese troops killed. Many of the communists reported killed are credited to United States bombers and helicopter gunships, and thus the figure is based largely on estimates and in some cases pure guesswork. 5 - The United States Command, in its latest available report on the American role which was issued last Saturday, said "cumu--7 lative results of United States air operations in support of the South Vietnamese . . . indicate 3600

enemy troops reported killed by air.” The Command has acknowledged that the tabulation is based on reports from “air crews, forward air controllers and South Vietnamese forces.”