FIGHTING NEAR HUE

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33626, 30 August 1974, Page 9

FIGHTING NEAR HUE

Threat to Highway I

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) SAIGON, August 29. Heavy fighting is reported, for the first time for several months, near the old imperial capital of Hue, on the northern coast north of Da Nang. Government forces being! pre-occupied for six weeks | with Communist attacks to j the south of Da Nang, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong! forces fired an estimated 2000 rounds of shells along a string of Government positions guarding Highway No.l, about 15 miles southeast of Hue, and then followed up with infantry assaults. The positions hit included the headquarters of a Government militia battalion, two militia companies, and three squad-size outposts. The total Government forces involved numbered about 400 men. Radio contact has been lost with the three outposts. About the same time as the fighting was going on, an estimated 1000 disabled veterans and civilians were demonstrating, not far from the battlefield, for jobs and benefits they claimed were overdue. The demonstrators barricaded Highway No. 1 for about four hours, but dispersed after the authorities had promised to try to help them to solve their problems.