VIETNAM WAR American pilots claim MiG2l

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 17

VIETNAM WAR American pilots claim MiG2l

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SAIGON, February 22.

American fighter-bombers shot down a MiG2l interceptor in northern Laos yesterday, and made four raids inside North Vietnam, knocking out at least four anti-aircraft guns.

It was the second MiG2l shot down by American fighters in a little more than a month; the last, the victim of a United States Navy F 4 Phantom over North Vietnam on January 19, was the first to be shot down for 20 months. The United States Military Command in Saigon reports that other fighters, escorting bombers over Laos and reconnaisance aircraft over North Vietnam, attacked four surface-to-air missile radar sites and anti-aircraft artillery batteries with bombs and air-to-ground missiles. . United Press International reports from Phnom Penh that there was fierce fighting within three miles of the temples of Angkor Wat yesterday, during which Cambodian troops seized an important trench line after heavy hand-to-hand combat. Government losses were 11 killed and 37 wounded. Communist casualties are not known.

In Phnom Penh itself, 12 persons were wounded last night when a booby-trap grenade exploded close to a city theatre. Eight of those wounded are in a serious condition. Elsewhere in Cambodia,

there were minor attacks last night in which eight persons were wounded by recoilless cannon, mortar or automatic gun fire.