Thai forces on full alert after border clash

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 6

Thai forces on full alert after border clash

NZPA Bangkok Thai troops went on full, alert yesterday on the] flashpoint border with Kam-: (puchea after an overnight] i shoot-out with Vietnamese; ; probe units thought to be ! moving against Kampuchean ! guerrillas. officials have ! said. First reports were! [Sketchy but indicated that, ’no-one was injured in the ! brief clash, the first such Thai-Vietnamese brush since Hanoi’s forces thrust in Thailand late last month. A Foreign Ministry official said the incident occurred at the Klong Luek checkpoint. a sandbagged; i former railway bridge oppo-. 'site the Kampuchean border] I town of Poipet. A published; account said Vietnamese sol-! ,diers had stepped on trip; 'flares planted by Thai sol-ji (diets, triggering the shoot-; out. ■ The official, a reliable, source in the past, said itj; came as Vietnamese units; moved on a Khmer Rouge:; stronghold 30km south in, the Phnom Malai foothills,/ which hug the border with.i Thailand. |i Meanwhile. an uneasyi;

’peace was said to have .turned to the shattei , icross-border refugee Can. > ■OO7 at Nong Samet. tlij [scene of pitched battles for (the last three days between ! rival non-Communist Khmer I Serei guerrilla factions. At 'least 30 people have been killed and more than .100 in■jured. In Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is already planning a “massive" combined forces military exercise to co-ordi-nate the roles of the Armv. Navy, and Air Force in the face of “threats.” The announcement, by the chief of general staff (Lieu-tenant-General Tan Sri Mohamed Ghazali Datuk Seth), comes on the heels of the six-week long army manoeuvres “Gonzales IV” which wound up in northern Malaysia last Thursday. War games at present were mainly an Army affair with some Air Force participation. But once the core service, the Army, had been given adequate exposure to the war games “and we have put our own house in order.” the combined threearm exercise would be staged, the general said.