Saigon counters Communist push

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33539, 21 May 1974, Page 13

Saigon counters Communist push

IN.Z.P.A. -Reuter—Copyright)

SAIGON, May 20.

Communist sappers today attacked South Vietnam’s biggest oil depot, six miles from Saigon, blowing up a tank and destroying about 315,000 gallons of petrol.

Meanwhile, a Government task force began moving northwards against Communist Units which had moved to within 25 miles of the capital. The Commander of South Vietnam’s third military region, the vital area around the capital, ordered the task force to re-take three Government positions overrun last week by a mixed North Vietnamese and Viet Cong force in its thrust down to the Thi Tinh River.

Government planes struck at the Communist positions as a reconnaissance unit made the first crossing of the river, military sources said

The oil depot explosion, before dawn today, was the second Viet Cong strike at the Nha Be depot in six months. Last December, | I shells set off a fire which*

consumed one-third of South Vietnam’s fuel reserves, over 15 million gallons.

One Communist sapper was killed near the fence of the depot, six miles southeast of Saigon. Military sources said that the blaze was extinguished before it reached any of the other tanks at Nha Be.

Today’s Thi Tinh river crossing came after thousands of civilians had fled south front the fighting in the last few days. Others were reported trapped in villages which the Communists passed as they came down from their strongholds in the northwest.

The Saigon Command said that 200 troops from the three overrun Government positions were still missing. Another 192 had reported back to their units since their outposts fell. ,