40 badly hurt in battle between guerrilla rivals

Press, 12 July 1980, Page 8

40 badly hurt in battle between guerrilla rivals

NZPA-Reuter Bangkok More- than 40 Kampucheans were seriously wounded in fighting that [ broke out on Thursday night between rival • guerrilla groups around a large encampment straddling Thailand’s eastern border, relief [ agency sources have said. 1 The sources said there were no reliable reports on any dead, but tens of thousands of people inhabiting the’ bamboo and grass, huts of the encampment had fled about one ’ kilometre into Thailand. They said that at least 40 people had been taken to Red Cross hospitals in the massive refugee camp of Khao-I-Dang, 12km from the border. Medical teams were still evacuating the seriously wounded. The fighting, between guerrillas loyal to the ousted Khmer Rouge regime and Rightist Khmer Serei (Free Khmer) forces was still going on this morning around the Kampuchean encampment known as Camp 007 opposite the Thai border village of Nong Samet, they said. There was no immediate explanation of what had caused the fighting between the Khmer Rouge, who have a base area just north of Camp 007, and Khmer Serei who control the camp, they added. Meanwhile, Thai military sources said sporadic fighting was continuing around a big Khmer Rouge base about 60km to the south of Camp 007. They said Vietnamese-led forces moving on the base area, known as Phnom Malai, were periodically shelling it, but appeared to be having difficulty coming to grips with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Khmer Rouge officials at the border yesterday told

NZPA-Reuter that the guerrillas were fighting in small groups of between three and ten men, hitting the Viet-namese-led forces from all sides in hit-and-run raids. They said the clashes were occurring daily' and claimed the guerrillas were inflicting heavy casualties on the Vietnamese-led troops. They declined to comment on Khmer Rouge losses. The base area is protected from direct assault by a range of small hills which prevent artillery bearing directly on Khmer Rouge positions behind them.