CLASH IN MALAYSIA

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33814, 10 April 1975, Page 13

CLASH IN MALAYSIA

1000 troops

in action 'N Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) I KUALA LUMPUR. April 9. I About 1000 Malaysian! Army soldiers are today! combing the jungles of the state of Kedah, near the Thai' border, in search of Commun-I ist guerrillas who ambushed; and killed seven soldiers and wounded 10 others. A Security Committee spokesman in the state capital, Alor Star, said that the troops had found fresh tracks and blood trails left by the Communists, but had so far made no contact with the guerrillas. Malaysia had asked Thai security forces across the border to help to seal off the escape routes into Thailand’s southern provinces, where the Communists are known to have jungle sanctuaries. A statement by the Malaysian National Security Council says that the attack in Kedah, and another incident on the same day in the neighbouring state of Perak, in which Communists wounded four soldiers, are believed to have been planned to commemorate the anniversary this year of the Communist uprising in 1948, and to disrupt the Government’s development efforts in West Malaysia.