U.S. bombers blast Quang Tri targets

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32965, 11 July 1972, Page 13

U.S. bombers blast Quang Tri targets

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyrigh

SAIGON. Julv 10.

American bombers dropped hundreds of tons of e.xplosix es during the night on suspected North Vietnamese positions on the western flank of the Government paratroop force that is still on the edge of the city of Quang Tri.

Stratofortresses also made concentrated raids further south, in the mountains to the west of the city of Hue, where a North Vietnamese build-up had been detected while South Vietnam’s marine and airborne division pushed north in a bid to retake the province of Quang Tri.

The 600 paratroopers positione< on the south-eastern edge of the city of Quang Tri, which fell to the Communists on May 1, continue under attack by North Vietnamese artillery fire from the north and west.

The airborne battalion is engaged in clearing houses and bunkers around a sports stadium, and has made no attempt yet to move into the city proper, where an unknown number of North Vietnamese are believed to be entrenched.

Marine units north-east of Quang Tri and airborne elements behind the main line were involved in sporadic clashes with the North Vietnamese yesterday. West of Saigon, there was renewed fighting in the province of Kien Tuong, bordering Cambodia on the edge of the Parrot’s Beak salient, about 50 miles from the capital. Several days ago, the South Vietnamese Army

began a joint operation with the Cambodian forces in the area to clear Highway No. 1 between Phnom Penh and Saigon. The operation is also aimed at isolating the North Vietnamese troops who pulled back from An Loc to sanctuaries across the Cambodian border. An Loc is still isolated, and cannot be reached by road, but helicopters are flying in and out of the provincial capital unmolested by Communist fire.

During daylight hours yesterday, An Loc was hit by 51 rounds of mixed artillery, rocket and mortar fire. Seven members of the Government garrison defending the flattened city were killed, and 1” others were wounded. Air battle Three North Vietnamese MiG2l fighter-bombers were shot down in an air battle with American Phantom fighter-bombers over the mountains west of Hanoi yesterday. One of the Phantoms was hit, and it crashed as it turned back to its base in Thailand, but the crew ejected, and were rescued. Yesterday’s air duel was the second reported near the North Vietnamese capital in 72 hours. Two Phantoms

[were shot down by MiG2ls north-east of Hanoi on Wednesday, with the loss of all four crewmen. United States Air Force officers have predicted that as North .Vietnam runs out of her Russian-made surface-to-air missiles—she has fired 1600 since her offensive began two months ago—she would be obliged to use less sparingly her MiG fighter force of more than 200 aircraft. But, the officers add, about 40 MiGs had been shot down by American jets during the offensive, and a challenge like yesterday’s by four MiGs in an area close to Hanoi was not particularly unusual.