Evening star., 1947-07-16
Greek Aircraft
Pound Trapped
,Lettist Rebels
} onsuoes closing Ii
For Showdown Bottle
With GuerriIIus
BY the Associoted Press

leftist guerrlllaS trapped on the
slope of Mount Camilla north of
1oannina (Janina) today as three
government brigades closed in
for a showdown battle, military
sources reported.
Army authorities said precautions
also had been taken against any
new invasion on Greek SOIL The
authorities added that Greek intel
ligence reports disclosed there were
six guerrilla concentration centers-
three if Albania and three in Yugo-
Slavia-from which new offenSives
could fbe launched. These reports
said the largest Of the three in AL
bania was at Lescovic, and that a
hospital for the guerrillas was To-
Gated there.
A source close to the general staff
indicated last night that the field
of the payof battle in Northwestern
Greece probably would be near the
villages of Yeroplatanos and Vasill-
kon where, he said, the army had
guerrillas surrounded. Visilikon is
only four miles from the Albanian
frontier.
Brigades Trap $500.
War Minister George Stratos,
meanwhile, reported entrapment of
the $500 antigovernment troops
by three Greek brigades-4.500 men
all told-north of the village of
Negrahdes. where, he said. they
were halted yesterday in drive on
the Epirus capital of Ioannina, 19
miles to the south.
The irregulars, said Mr.. Stratos,
Cannot escape and have to give
battle"
He reported one brigade moving
up from the south had stopped the
guerrillas in their push for Ioannina,
a city of 10000, and two others COM
ing down from the north had closed
the trap from that direction The
air force, he said. had ferried in re-
inforcemepts, landing some of them
on a field partly flooded by heavy
rains.
(This indicated that Yero-
plantos and Negradhes might be
on tie northern and southern
bounds of the same trap, which
thus would be miles across.)
The general staff informant said
two Greek brigades nine miles west
of Yeroplatanos had trapped an
other force of guerrillas beaten back,
Monday from the village of Konitsa,
25 miles north of Ioannina.
Retreat Up Mountain.
There was one report that some
. guerilla forces in the Ioannina push
had retreated up 7,000-foot Mount
Camilla northeast of Negradhes, and
high military sources said this group
probably would be cut to pieces in q
few days.
Mr.. Stratos, who has pictured the
current guerrilla offensive as an "in-
vasion" aimed at setting up a Com
munist state, said 20 prisoners had
told interrogators contingents of an
international brigade" were among
the forces fighting the army.
He added that members of a
United Nations Balkan subcommis-
sion had become convinced that the
offensive began in Albania. Mr..
Stratos reported the subcommission
went back, to its Salonika head
quarters from the battle zone yes
terday, but would return to Konitsa
to talk with prisoners.
The war minister said the govern
ment had learned of big concentra-
tlons Of arms and other supplies at
three places in Albania and three
places in ,Yugoslavia. Another
source said many wounded guer-
rillas had been taken to an Al
banian military hospital at Lesko-
vic.
In London, a Foreign Office
spokesman said last night that in
quiries of British ENJOYS in va
rious' countries gave nothing to
prove or disprove the international
brlgade's existence" Other sources
said these countries included Italy,
Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
The Soviet news agency Tass, in
an Athens dispatch broadcast by
the Moscow radio today and heard
in London, said the alleged inter
national brigade" really was groups
of partisans which advanced from
the Grammos area and are moving
southwark" in an evident attempt
"to cut off the Konitsa garrison from
other government troops"
A later Moscow broadcast, also
heard in London, carried a Tass-
distributed dispatch of the official
Albanian Telegraph Agency which
denied that any international bri-
gade" had crossed from Albania into
Greece.
This dispatch attributed reports
of such a force to certain foreign
news agencies and number of for
eign newspapers
THE Albanian Telegraph Agency"
It said, "refutes these assertions as
absurd, fantastic and without any
foundation"