The commander said that Government rangers and armor had crossed the border near Chaudoc and also near Kep on the Gulf of Siam, to replace units of the Ninth Division that had been stationed there.

The Ninth Division, General Truong said, was pulled out of Cambodia to join the 21st Division in a dry-season offensive next month against North Vietnamese and Vietcong sanctuaries in the U Minh Forest.

## U. S. Deaths at New Low

In Saigon, the United States command said the five Americans killed in action last week and four wounded was the smallest combined casualty count since it started keeping records early in 1965. The command said that 13 Americans died last week in accidents and from illnesses.

The low death toll reflects the continuing disengagement of American forces from combat and accelerated withdrawals from Vietnam. South Vietnamese headquarters reported 276 Government soldiers killed last week and 514 wounded, an increase over the previous week.

Both commands now have reported these casualty totals:

American — 45,604 killed in action, 302,205 wounded and 9,947 dead from other causes.

South Vietnamese — 135,972 killed, 294,507 wounded.

North Vietnamese and Vietcong — 783,417 killed.

DEC 16 1971

W.P.

Vietnamese
Enter Chup
Plantation

SAIGON, Dec. 15 (AP)-

South Vietnamese paratroop-
ers swept into Indochina's
largest rubber plantation
today in their push through
eastern Cambodia.

The paratroopers, backed by
120 tanks and armored person-
nel carriers, drove north into
the plantation after securing
the town of Chup without op-
position.

South Vietnamese air force
F-5 jets and A-1 Skyraiders
and South Vietnamese army
artillery pounded the southern
and eastern sections of the
Chup plantation and the area
around Chup town.

There has been no signifi-
cant fighting in the three-day
push toward Chup by 6,000
South Vietnamese troops.
Field officers reported that
the North Vietnamese regi-
ments have withdrawn to the
north, possibly across the Me-
kong River.

Senior U.S. advisers said the
two enemy regiments are op-
erating along the northern
boundary of the 75-square-mile
plantation, while South Viet-
namese forces have penet-
trated only the southern and
eastern sectors.

Gen. Nguyen Van Minh,
commander of the 25,000
South Vietnamese troops in
the Eastern Cambodia offen-
sive, claimed more than 400
enemy soldiers killed by his
men and by airstrikes during
four days of heavy fighting
last week at Dam Be, east of
Chup.

The South Vietnamese lost
at least 20 armored vehicles
and suffered more than 150
easualties in the fighting. B-52
bombers continued to pound
Dam Be after the Saigon
forces pulled out and began
their push toward Chup.

A South Vietnamese spokes-
man reported that Highway 7
from Suong to Chup was de-
serted, and that the town of
Suong itself was destroyed
and abandoned. Many houses
appeared to have been
bombed out, he said.

Rubber workers at the Chup
plantation charged last week
that 200 civilians were killed
by South Vietnamese air-
strikes on Suong.

The U.S. Command acknowl-
edge B-52 strikes in and
around the Chup plantation,
but said it had no reports of
civilians being killed at Suong.

In Saigon, the U.S. Com-
mand reported that American
fighter-bombers attacked
radar and missile sites in
North Vietnam Monday after
a surface to air missile was
fired at them.

The command also reported
that a U.S. Army light plane
apparently crashed at sea
north of Danang yesterday
with five Americans and two
Vietnamese aboard. An inten-
sive search was under way.

DEC 13 1971

W.P.

The Washington Post

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1971

GENERAL NEWS

A25

Reds Maintain Pressure in Cambodia

By Peter Osnos

Washington Post Foreign Service

Skoun, Cambodia, Dec. 15—The rout of Cambodian forces along Highway 6 earlier this month is already regarded as the most serious setback of the war for Phnom Penh's brave but ragged army—and it may not yet be over.

Enemy pressure on the small outposts and garrisons along the northeastern front stepped up sharply today and the few remaining farmers in the area were hurriedly collecting whatever rice they could, a sure sign that they expected more trouble.

Government soldiers, clutching ancient carbines and wearing rubber sandals and uniforms they said they had to buy themselves, ventured forth warily in pairs, but no counterattack was mounted.

In Phnom Penh, even before learning of the new round of attacks, senior Americans were privately expressing serious concern about the shortcoming of fects of the Trust highway 6 setback and what it showed about the shortcoming of the Cambodian army.

The prevailing American

view is that the defeat on Highway 6 will make the Cambodians considerably more restrained for a time in their zeal to engage the enemy. That attitude was very visible today in the cautiousness of the Cambodian officers.

Until yesterday it had been thought that the enemy was satisfied with pushing the Cambodians back to the ruined town of Taing Kuak (about 50 miles from Phnom Penh where government troops had started on Aug. 20 in their illfated attempt to reclaim Highway 6 to Kampong Thom.

That operation, known as Tchenla 2, had been intended to retake populous and fertile land lost to the enemy shortly after the war began 20 months ago and, at the same time, close out an important enemy supply route from the northeast.

A total of perhaps 20,000 troops moved down the road from Kampong Thom and up from Taing Kauk.

After some early progress, enemy resistance stiffened and the Cambodians were forced to abandon everything they had gained. Several whole government

battalions were wiped out and thousands of new refugees created.

From all accounts the withdrawal was unseemly. Hundreds of wounded were left behind. Hundreds of able-bodied men deserted (they are now said to be returning).

The final retreat, ordered by Prime Minister Lon Nol himself after a helicopter inspection of the area, ended on Dec. 30.

Since then the vicinity has been quiet except for some sporadic shelling but beginning early yesterday, there has been 122-mm. and 82-mm. rocket and motar harassment of outposts along the nine miles from here to Taing-Kauk. The road has been cut at a critical point and the garrison at Taing-Kauk and another at Prakham have been isolated.

At Prakham, a ground attack was also said to be under way (in Phnom Penh tonight, the Cambodian high command said the situation on Highway 6 was "serious"). Yesterday's wounded were evacuated by ambulance. It is doubtful any could get through today.

The attacks could, of course, ease as suddenly as they began but Lt. Col. Nop

Para Moun, deputy commander of the estimated 5,000 men in the area, said he was not optimistic.

In an interview here today he said the enemy's tactics in the past two days appear to be the same as they were farther up the road: isolate the main outposts, then attack heavily by fire, pepper them with propaganda leaflets and when morale sags and supplies are low, hit hardest.

Col. Para Moun's troops have been in defensive positions around here for months and are not the same ones that retreated from Tchenla 2. But they saw those forces fleeing, he said, and "it gave a very bad impression to my men."

The enemy assumes, he said, that "if we were to withdraw again, then morale would go down for others. We will try to stand for as long as we can."

One notable difference between the area beyond Skoun and other Cambodian military positions is the absence of women and children. They were withdrawn two weeks ago when the fighting grew fierce.

# Some War Questions

By TOM WICKER

Saigon, reads the dateline, and part of the story goes as follows:

"The reported drive is... aimed at keeping North Vietnamese forces away from South Vietnam's Military Region III. That region includes Saigon and eleven surrounding provinces and shares 231 miles of border with Cambodia.

"Other objectives ... are to disrupt North Vietnamese supply routes and to destroy enemy base camps and matériel in order to prevent the enemy assaults against South Vietnamese bases."

The Sound familiar? It certainly does, but this is not May 1970 and those are not American but South Vietnamese troops staging an "incursion" into Cambodia. Otherwise, not much has changed; the sanctuaries still have to be cleaned out, North Vietnamese supplies still have to be destroyed, enemy build-ups still have to be countered, despite the glowing claims of other days.

Of course, the B-52's were out ahead of the 25,000 South Vietnamese who mounted this most recent assault into Cambodia. From above the clouds, the Americans piloting them spread the random destruction that is their hallmark, while nearer the earth Amer-

## IN THE NATION

now the new incursion into Cambodia comes as a graphic reminder that this is a far "wider" war than it was when Richard Nixon took it over from Lyndon Johnson.

It is true that Mr. Nixon has reduced the American ground combat role and its consequent casualties, and no doubt he intends to cut them even further; it may also be true that constant rounding has reduced North Vietnamese and Vietcong strength. But there is nothing to show a slackening of will on Hanoi's part, and the Cambodian operations are ominous portents for the future.

Will pulling out American ground troops end the war for Americans? It is by no means clear that Mr. Nixon plans to pull them all out, but even if he did the United States almost certainly will have to retain a major role in the wider war now being fought and that remains in prospect for the future.

For one thing, the United States is the principal supplier of both the Cambodian and South Vietnamese armies and owns Laotian forces lock, stock and gunbarrel. For another, the only thing that comes close to equalizing these forces with those of North Vietnam and the Vietcong is American air power. And these factors, which suggest that the United States is nowhere close to extricating itself from Indochina, are reinforced by still another question.

Can South Vietnamese forces defend Cambodia as well as South Vietnam? The South Vietnamese have not even established their ability to defend themselves, once more American combat troops are out of the war zone and if a determined Communist offensive begins. Most certainly, the Cambodian Army, improved though it may be, has yet to show that it can seal off the Cambodian approaches to South Vietnam.

The plain truth is that Cambodia flanks South Vietnam to the west, and that no matter how well Saigon's army may defend its own territory, it can only do so if that flank is secure. Further setbacks to Cambodian forces may well spread the South Vietnamese too thin in both countries, a situation that could result in even greater commitment of American air power—or worse, the reintroduction of American ground forces to help hold the line.

So these questions are in order, too: Is Mr. Nixon's Vietnamization program building toward a final triumphant withdrawal of ground forces just before the election—or toward a new Communist onslaught and the possibility of a major military setback? And what are his intentions, if that possibility should become a probability in the year ahead? Can even he answer those questions with any success?

> "The new incursion into Cambodia comes as a graphic reminder that this is a far 'wider' war than it was when Richard Nixon took it over from Lyndon Johnson."

ican-supplied helicopters and fighter planes played close-support roles. As in earlier invasions, some of these, now or later, may even be flown by American personnel.

Farther to the west and north of Pnompenh, meanwhile, the American-supplied and trained Cambodian Army has suffered major setbacks at the hands of tough North Vietnamese forces. American officials believe Hanoi's operations in Cambodia are directed primarily at easier military access to South Vietnam, rather than at Cambodia itself; but any way you study the situation, it hardly augurs well for Cambodia.

Aside from the fact that it was precisely this kind of situation that the American invasion of 1970 was supposed to prevent, the continuing battle in Cambodia raises some pointed questions, the answers to which could reverberate loudly in American politics.

Is the war really "winding down"? Obviously, it is not. The Nixon Administration has resumed the bombing of North Vietnam any time it declares a military necessity to do so, and the shadowy fighting in Laos continues.

DEC 14 1971

N.Y.T.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mekong River, South Vietnamese forces have had only scattered contact with the estimated two North Vietnamese divisions located in the rubber plantation region there.

Neither have any significant supplies nor logistical bases been located and destroyed, military sources said today, leaving unfulfilled another principal objective of the campaign.

For the first time Thursday and Friday, these sources reported, there has been sustained contact with elements of the 209th Regiment of the North Vietnamese 7th Division around the ruined village of Dambe, on the northern reaches of the drive.

As yet, analysts see no signs of this fighting developing into a major confrontation, nor do they believe one is likely to come later, based on enemy strategy in the first three weeks of the operation.

The Communists, according to this widely accepted analysis, are prepared to leave the rubber plantation areas to the South Vietnamese while they continue to harass the Cambodians elsewhere and build up their supplies and logistics system to the northeast.

This double-barrelled objective is less costly and potentially more valuable than taking on the South Vietnamese regulars and their powerful American air shield now.

It is easy for the Communists to look good in Cambodia, one senior intelligence official reasoned, against the weak, lightly armed Cambodian battalions. For all their bravery and will, events of the past few weeks have shown that the Cambodians are still no match at all for North Vietnamese regulars.

"As long as the North Vietnamese can't bring his 5th, 7th and 9th divisions back into South Vietnam itself," this official said, "then... can do the most dam our international picture using them in Cambodia."

As for concentrating on improved logistics, officials here and in Phnom Penh agree that that is probably the Communists' principal mission at present and accounts also for the continued low level of activity in South Vietnam.

U.S. bombardment of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the loss since March 1970 of the port of Sihanoukville (now known as Kompong Som has made it harder for the Communists to keep themselves supplied.

For now in South Vietnam, one experienced official said, "they are fighting the war of the empty battlefield—mines, booby traps, attacks by fire and terrorism, few men and a minimum of supplies."

"They are looking beyond this year," he continued, "to the time when we are down to a very small force and they can mount a big offensive here. That is what they are getting ready for in the northeast and it's an awfully big job."

Realizing the Communist strategy, the South Vietnamese might ordinarily be expected to move into the northeast on the one hand and, on the other, go further into Cambodia to help beleaguered Phnom Penh.

Neither thrust is thought likely. Tackling the North Vietnamese in the two areas would be very dangerous—akin to the ill-fated Laotian drive of last February—and cautious South Vietnamese commanders are unwilling to take the risk.

The reasons for not sending the South Vietnamese to defend Phnom Penh are both political and military.

First, there is the deep-seated hostility between the two peoples which would only be exacerbated if Saigon forces were to defend the Cambodian capital, or even for any extended pe-

North Viet Missile Downs U.S. Plane

SAIGON, Dec. 11 (AP)—
North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile batteries shot down the first U.S. fighter-bomber in more than eight months, but a rescue effort involving 40 aircraft plucked the injured pilot from enemy lines today. A second crewman is missing.

The U.S. 7th Air Force search and rescue armada flew through what the U.S. Command described as intense SAM and antiaircraft fire and attacked the sites inside North Vietnam several times.

At least four more of the So-viet-made SAMs were fired at the search planes, which were in action from the time the fighter-bomb was shot down shortly before noon Friday until this morning.

The plane was escorting other bombers on strikes near the Mu Gia Pass, about 85 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone, a key entry point for North Vietnamese trucks and war materials using the Ho Chi Minh Trail for the push 255 miles southward into

Cambodia and South Vietnam.

In another development, the Saigon command claimed South Vietnamese forces have killed 694 North Vietnamese troops in a three-week drive through eastern Cambodia. South Vietnamese losses were put at 73 killed and 396 wounded.

A spokesman for the command said, meanwhile, that South Vietnamese troops were advancing westward along Highway 7 toward Suong. He

said the troops were within four miles of the town, which is on the eastern edge of the Chuo rubber plantation, headquarters of the North Vietnamese 9th Division.

In fighting around Phnom Penh, field informants reported Cambodian troops were pushed off the key hill position of Phnom Baset, 14 miles northwest of the capital.

The informants said small bands of Cambodians managed to sneak through the enemy lines to the main government positions.

New S. Viet
Advance in
Cambodia

SAIGON, Dec. 10 (AP)—
South Vietnamese forces
started withdrawing today
from a key North Vietnamese
base camp area 30 miles inside
Cambodia, claiming they had
succeeded in destroying
enemy installations.

The new target of South
Vietnam's 25,000-man cam-
paign in eastern Cambodia
may be the Chup rubber plan-
tation, headquarters of the
North Vietnamese 9th Divi-
sion, to the west of the most
recent operation around
Dambe.

Unconfirmed reports from
Cambodia said the South Viet-
namese had begun an advance
toward the plantation. They
quoted rubber plantation
workers at saying that South
Vietnamese forces rained
rockets into the town of Suong,
killing 20 civilians. Suong is
10 miles east of the plantation.

The South Vietnamese oper-
ation around Dambe wound up
after three days of the only
significant action since it
started Nov. 22.

The Saigon command
claimed 167 enemy troops
were killed in the past three
days, many of them by air
strikes. Field reports put
South Vietnamese losses at 10
ground troops and 4 airmen
killed and at least 100
wounded.

American helicopters were
reported to have flown more
than 1,000 missions, mostly
gunship strikes, in the past
three days of the operation.

Two U.S. helicopters plus
two South Vietnamese helicop-
ters and a light observation
plane were reported shot
down yesterday and today. No
American casualties were re-
ported.

Despite the upsurge in fight-
ing, field commanders said
their mission in the Dambe
area was over. They had found
the enemy, called in air
strikes and destroyed installa-
tions in a key spot on the ene-
my's supply route from the
north, they claimed.

OVERSEAS

Communists retreat into jungle
after South Vietnamese
assault on their camp in Cambodia

Saigon, Dec 9.—Some 1,500 South Vietnamese soldiers, supported by tanks, artillery and helicopter gunships, drove through rocket, machine-gun and rifle fire today to storm a communist camp in eastern Cambodia.

The gunships in the attack were American, forming part of an operation in which United States military aircraft and helicopters flew more than 650 missions across Indochina. They blanketed wide areas of Laos and Cambodia with bombs, rockets and napalm in an attempt to stop North Vietnamese supplies and reinforcements moving south.

The South Vietnamese command reported 73 communists killed in the attack on the camp, one of the biggest battles of the Indo-China war in recent months. There were no reports of government losses.

A force of 1,100 paratroops on foot and 400 Rangers in 35 tanks and armoured troop carriers attacked the camouflaged camp, hidden in jungle 25 miles inside Cambodia. Artillery and the helicopter gunships pounded the camp ahead of the attacking troops.

From first casualty figures it seemed likely that there was a company of 135 men at the camp. The communists withdrew into thick jungle, carrying some of their dead and wounded with them. They left behind two machine-guns, six rocket launchers and rifles.

Communist troops today launched heavy rocket, mortar and ground attacks on Santuk Hill, north of Phnom Penh, according to a Phnom Penh High Command spokesman. It was thought that the communists were trying to encircle Santuk, which is 87 miles from Phnom Penh.

The village of Am Loc, three and a half miles south of the provincial capital of Kompong Thom, fell today after two days of hand to hand fighting, a spokesman said. There was much worry about the thousands of refugees, he added.

Taing Kauk, 52 miles north of Phnom Penh, is now the last point on the southern end of Highway 6 held by Cambodian troops.

The High Command reported three clashes in the Phnom Penh area today, two near Baset Hill, 15 miles to the north, and one in the south, where a new build-up was signalled yesterday.—UPI

Vientiane, Dec 9.—All Royal Laotian positions on the Bolovens plateau have, been "bomarded, harassed and immobilized", a military spokesman said today.

The ruins of the town of Saravane in the north of the plateau 300 miles north-east of here, had been evacuated on Monday by two Royal Laotian battalions under severe pressure from North Vietnamese forces he said.

The regional capital of Paksong was pounded by North Vietnamese artillery yesterday and the defenders obliterated several infantry attacks. Aerial bombardment finally forced two battalions of communists to retreat from their positions round the besieged city. The spokesman said 45 North Vietnamese were killed.

However, a column of North Vietnamese, 8,000 strong, was making for the city from the centre of the plain. A strategic crossroads at Thateng, 20 miles north-east of Paksong, was also threatened by the communist advance, the spokesman said. This position was taken last month by special anti-communist forces after being occupied by the North Vietnamese

for two and a half years.—Agence France Presse.

Peking, Dec 9.—The North Korean Ambassador to China, Mr Hyun Jeun-keuk, today said that the proclamation of a state of emergency in South Korea on Monday was aimed at wrecking the prospects of Korean reunification and shoring up the regime in Seoul.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Hyun said the state of emergency had been announced just when talks between the North and South Korean Red Cross societies in Panmunjon were arousing great hopes.

He reaffirmed North Korea's policy of seeking the reunification of the country with patience and in peace "on the basis of the eight-point proposal set out in Pyongyang last April".—Agence France Presse

Paris, Dec 9.—Mr William Porter, the American delegate at the Paris peace talks, today said that the United States was extremely displeased at the progress of the talks, and the meeting broke up in disagreement over the date of the next session.

Mr Porter proposed that the meeting should be held on December 23, so that the North Vietnamese delegates would have time to receive instructions from Hanot. The other side rejected the proposal, saving that the next session should be in a week's time.

Mr Porter had earlier criticized the North Vietnamese for apparently not having been given authority to negotiate.

Agence France Presse.

Our Canberra Correspondent writes: About 150 Australian Army advisers will remain in South Vietnam after the withdrawal of the bulk of Australian Serviceemen, Mr David Fairbairn, Minister for Defence, announced.

DEC 10 1971

W.P.

Battle Near
Cambodian
Capital

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 9 (AP) —Cambodian troops dug in around a vital transmitter near the suburban villa of Premier Lon Nol today while U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft tried to drive back the enemy in an arc west of Phnom Penh.

Refugees on foot, in oxcarts and motor vehicles fled toward the capital from beleaguered villages on the outskirts.

Soviet-made rockets hit a strategic hill position 14 miles northwest of the heart of Phnom Penh and ground troops assaulted a government position 12 miles southwest of the city.

The Cambodians retook Kleah Sanday village 10 miles to the south after the enemy occupied it for a day, but the village was leveled in the process.

Lt. Col. Lon Non, commander of defense forces and brother of the premier, said North Vietnamese and Vietcong who have marauded around Phnom Penh for weeks apparently do not intend to invade the capital.

After reaching the front, Lon said that the village elders had "asked me to destroy Kleah Sanday because it was no use to them with the enemy there."

He promised that destitute villagers would receive government aid.

About 85 miles to the north-east, a 25,000-man South Vietnamese campaign designed in part to draw back enemy forces from other parts of Cambodia encountered its first significant action since it began Nov. 22.

Reports from the front said that South Vietnamese paratroopers and tanks, aided by U.S. gunship helicopters, battled troops of North Vietnam's 7th Division yesterday and today 30 miles inside Cambodia.

South Vietnamese military spokesmen claimed 120 enemy were killed and six captured, and at least two South Vietnamese troops died and 28 were wounded in the fighting, near Dambe.

A key enemy base camp now claimed controlled by Saigon forces, Dambe, lies on a supply route between two huge rubber plantations that have sheltered North Vietnamese divisions.

Fighting lagged on other Indochina battlefields.

In the air war, U.S. war planes and helicopters flew more than 650 missions across Indochina, blanketing wide areas of Laos and Cambodia with bombs, rockets and napalm in an effort to choke off movement of North Vietnamese supplies and reinforcements.

Meanwhile, military investigators in Saigon say they believe an M26 grenade blew a hole in the roof of a U.S. officers' barracks at the Danang air base and maybe it was a fragging by disgruntled enlisted men.

Five staff officers of the 366th Munitions Squadron, ranging from lieutenant colonel to lieutenant, and two civilian technical representatives were wounded.

Fragging, common in Vietnam, is GI slang for setting off fragmentation grenades in the quarters of disliked officers or noncommissioned officers.

The U.S. Command in Saigon announced today that four Americans were killed and five wounded in combat in the week ending last Saturday—second lowest since the command started keeping weekly records nearly seven years ago.

Eleven Americans were reported dead from nonhostile causes.

South Vietnam's weekly report listed 314 government troops killed last week and 630 wounded. Enemy dead for the week were put at 808.

South Vietnamese paratroopers and tanks, aided by United States gunship helicopters, battled troops of North Vietnam's Seventh Division yesterday and today 30 miles inside Cambodia, according to a report from the front.

South Vietnamese military spokesmen said that 120 enemy soldiers were killed and 6 captured. At least 2 South Vietnamese were believed killed and 28 were wounded, in the fighting near Dam Be.

A key enemy base camp now reported to be controlled by Saigon forces, Dam Be is on a supply route between the two rubber plantations where North Vietnamese divisions are believed to be entrenched.

## 2 Bases Shelled Near DMZ

SAIGON, South Vietnam, Dec. 9 (AP)—Just south of the demilitarized zone enemy gunners today shelled two South Vietnamese outposts. It was the first such attack in several weeks. The Saigon command

DEC 9 1971

W.P!

# Communists Attack Near Phnom Penh

From News Dispatches

Fighting has broken out in an area seven miles south of Phnom Penh around the Prey Sar prisoner of war camp, military sources in Cambodia reported yesterday.

It was the first time in the current dry season offensive that Communist troops have infiltrated into the area immediately south of the Cambodian capital, reaching a point less than five miles from the residence of Premier Lon Nol and threatening a government radio station.

Most of the fighting around Phnom Penh has previously been in the north and northwest.

Informants said that Cambodian authorities did not rule out the possibility that the enemy might attempt an incursion into the capital itself up the road from Prey Sar.

However, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the exiled Cambodian head of state now living in Peking, has said several times in the past few days that no ground attack on Phnom Penh is contemplated at this time.

Fighting was reported yesterday outside the tiny hamlet of Sre Ngei nine miles south of the capital, and 1,000 government troops were brought in to block a possible Communist advance toward the capital.

Military sources said that the 52d North Vietnamese regiment was massed close to Route 3, which enters the capital from the south.

After five hours of fighting around the hamlet of Kleah neighboring Sre Ngei, Commu-

nist troops still had not been dislodged. Casualties were not known.

The Cambodian military command also reported night-long fighting at several other points on the capital's outer fringes, as U.S. helicopters and other aircraft circled the city's outskirts in aid of Cambodian troops.

The command also revealed that a rocket attack against Phnom Penh airport Tuesday morning had destroyed two of Cambodia's operational fleet of eight helicopters.

Meanwhile, U.S. military sources in Saigon reported that B-52 bombers attacked a suspected Vietcong head quarters in Cambodia early this week and killed at least 100 Communists.

Hundreds of U.S. and South Vietnamese warplanes were out yesterday over Laos and Cambodia in a massive campaign to cut Communist supply lines.

The U.S. command also disclosed that American jet fighters twice attacked anti-aircraft gun and missile sites inside North Vietnam on Tuesday.

The North Vietnamese reportedly fired surface-to-air missiles at a third flight of U.S. jets, but none of the planes was hit.

Meanwhile, the South Vietnamese government was reported considering the release of some 8,000 prisoners of war in a Christmas and New Year's amnesty. Of the total, about 5,000 were said to be "returnees," or Vietcong who have rallied to the government's side.

Lao Troops
Flee Town
Under Attack

From News Dispatches

Laotian government forces yesterday abandoned the strategic town of Saravanne in southern Laos after an attack by two North Vietnamese battalions, informed sources said in Vientiane.

The sources said the North Vietnamese began their four-pronged attack against the town on the northern fringe of the Bolovens Plateau early yesterday morning.

A government retreat continued even after the North Vietnamese broke off following six hours of fighting with two battalions of Laotian forces and progovernment guerrilla units, the sources added.

First reports reaching the Laotian capital did not give any casualty figures.

The airstrip of Ban Khot, six miles northeast of Saravanne, was also abandoned because its location in open fields made defense impossible, they said.

Meanwhile, Cambodian troops fled a town near Phnom Penh's outskirts yesterday after one-fourth of their garrison was killed or wounded in two days of fighting, the Cambodian command reported.

It said 50 soldiers of the 200-man garrison had been killed or wounded, at Bat Doeung, 16 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, and remnants withdrew before dawn yesterday toward a nearby outpost at Phnom Baset.

Heavy Cambodian Casualties Reported

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, Dec. 5 (AP)—At least 100 Cambodians were reported killed or wounded in fighting today and reports from the northeastern front said that hundreds more were killed during last week's retreat along Route 6.

A Cambodian spokesman, Capt. Chhang Song, said that about 50 soldiers had been killed or wounded in a battle close to Pnompenh's northwest-ern city limits, where the town of Bat Doeung has been under attack since before dawn yes-terday. Bat Doeung is 16 miles from the center of Pnompenh.

The spokesman said the town was still holding out against enemy attacks. Most of today's fire into the town came from North Vietnamese or Viet-cong machine guns, he re-ported.

Kompong Thom, which is about 75 miles northeast of Pnompenh, is now isolated from the rest of the Government-held territory.

A 30-mile stretch of Route 6 was reoccupied by the North Vietnamese Ninth Division after the collapse of the Cam-bodian Army's main monsoon offensive last week. The re-treat was made on direct orders from Marshal Lon Nol, Cam-bodia's Premier.

## Troops Back in Garrison

All the Cambodian troops are now in Kompong Thom, with the exception of units at a small outpost close to San-tuk, according to newsmen who returned from Kompong Thom. They said the Government had lost 40 men to hold this outpost at the foot of strategically im-portant hills that are venerated as holy places by Buddhists.

The newsmen said the com-mander of most of the troops in the retreat, Col. Um Savuth, had spoken bitterly of personal dishonor and that he had re-fused to carry out the retreat until given repeated orders by the Premier.

The colonel was reported to

have vowed to fight his way back to abandoned positions "100 meters at a time," saying that retreat had not been neces-sary. Several senior officers are coming under increasing criti-cism for the speed with which they left their men to fend for themselves when the North Viet-namese Ninth Division attacked.

Cambodians are slowly learn-ing of the defeat from refugees. Government communiqués have been silent about the extent of the fighting in the northeast.

The latest withdrawal put the three-and-a-half-month Cambo-dian offensive back where it started, in Kompong Thom, the besieged city where more than half the 20,000 men in the op-eration had been concentrated.

The North Vietnamese now control the road from the Kom-pong Thom garrison south to the nearest Government troops —at Taing Kauk, 45 miles northeast of Pnompenh. Pres-sure on the Cambodians at Taing Kauk has been reported increasing.

# Phnom Penh's 'worst setback' felt as Hanoi smashes relief operation

Compiled from Reuter and the Associated Press

## Saigon

The 3½-month-old Cambodian operation to relieve the beleaguered northern city of Kompong Thom has been smashed by the North Vietnamese.

It is the worst setback for the Phnom Penh government in the 20 months of the Cambodian war.

Even the big South Vietnamese drive into eastern Cambodia, launched in mid-November, failed to lift North Vietnamese pressure off the Cambodian relief effort.

The objective of the Cambodian operation, started Aug. 19, was to clear Highway 6, which connects Phnom Penh with the provincial capital of Kompong Thom 87 miles to the northeast, and break the 15-month siege of Kompong Thom.

## Troops deployed

By September, 20,000 troops were deployed along the length of the highway, and the Cambodians were able to claim that it

was cleared but still not safe for normal traffic.

However, on Nov. 13 the North Vietnamese captured Rumlong on Highway 6 about 54 miles north of Phnom Penh, splitting the Cambodian forces in two.

Then, a few days ago, the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive against the isolated Cambodian forces to the north.

On Wednesday, according to informed sources, Premier Lon Nol ordered a complete withdrawal from the vulnerable sections of Highway 6 and the installation of new defenses around Kompong Thom.

The South Vietnamese Government sent a squadron of helicopters to Cambodia on Friday to help extricate the retreating Cambodian forces. The squadron included 24 to 30 helicopters and 6 to 8 escorting gunships.

Meanwhile, a company of South Vietnamese militiamen backing up the unproductive sweep of Cambodian border provinces engaged a full battalion of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops who had moved to within three miles of Tay Ninh City, headquarters for the South Vietnamese operation in Cambodia.

## On 'picnic strike'

By the Associated Press

So outraged were Orly Airport's customs inspectors at having to pay $1.02 for a meal in their lunchroom that they voted a picnic strike—a pseudo fresco lunch in the central passenger waiting room.

Cambodia Battle Intensifies

SAIGON, Dec. 3 (AP)—

Fighting picked up in South Vietnam's drive in eastern Cambodia today but action lagged on other fronts in Indonesia.

South Vietnamese paratroopers and armor operating 12 to 15 miles northeast of Chrum in eastern Cambodia reported killing 11 enemy troops and capturing seven weapons and 10 big rockets in three separate contacts.

In the Dambe enemy base area, 25 miles inside Cambodia and 20 miles north of Highway 7, paratroopers killed five enemy while suffering two dead and 16 wounded, official military sources reported.

The airborne troops also captured an enemy truck and destroyed an ammunition cache containing 140 rocket grenades and 28,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition, the sources said.

Cambodian forces in the Highway 6 area on the north-east front in Cambodia were regrouping in new defensive positions after losing the towns of Baray and Kompong Thomar.

A Cambodian officer estimated 5,000 Cambodian soldiers had quit the front and returned to Phnom Penh but said fresh troops were moving up. The rest of the original force of 20,000 troops in the northeast were digging in, consolidating positions between Tang Krasang, 70 miles northeast of Phnom Penh, and the provincial capital of Kompong Thom, 10 miles farther north.

South Vietnam sent a squadron of 24 to 30 Huey transport helicopters plus six to eight gunships to support the Cambodian operations along Highway 6, military sources in Saigon said.

A unit of the U.S. 1st Air Cavalry Division suffered two men killed and two wounded Thursday when it was airlifted into an enemy concentration previously worked over by helicopter gunships 42 miles east of Saigon. Seven enemy were reported killed.

Two U.S. Army UH1 Huey helicopters collided over the Uminh Forest, an old enemy stronghold 133 miles southwest of Saigon Thursday while supporting troops of the South Vietnamese 9th Division. Four crewmen were reported killed and four others injured.

The search for an Army CH47 Chinook helicopter, which crashed north of Danang last Sunday with 33 U.S. troops aboard, was stymied today by rough terrain and bad weather.

SAIGON'S DRIVE GETS
HEAVY U.S. SUPPORT

SAIGON, South Vietnam, Nov. 28 (Reuters)—American B-52 bombers, helicopter gunships and 8-inch mortars placed along the border lent support to South Vietnam's new incursion into Cambodia during the weekend, military announcements here said today.

The American command said about 280 helicopter missions—nearly all involving gunships—were flown in the 24-hour period before dawn today to support thousands of South Vietnamese ground forces searching eastern and northeastern Cambodia for enemy supply lines.

An unspecified number of B-52 missions were flown and United States artillery fired from South Vietnam.

Despite the size of the week-old campaign, which is reported to involve 45,000 South Vietnamese soldiers—little significant contact with Vietcong or North Vietnamese troops has yet been reported.

The campaign has taken the form of a dry-season sweep through the rubber plantation areas of Cambodia's eastern provinces rather than a surprise attack.

The Saigon command said

I waving revolvers after the shooting. Two were captured near the hotel and the third was found in a nearby apartment.

## Linked to Guerrillas

Official sources described the men as members of a Palestinian organization known as Black September, evidently named for the strife that erupted in Jordan in September, 1970, between the Jordanian Army and Palestinian guerrillas. The fighting gravely weakened the guerrilla movement.

A fourth man, identified as a Palestinian with a Syrian passport, was arrested later.

The Egyptian Prosecutor General, Mohammed Maher Hassan, reported after interrogation of the three gunmen that they had arrived in Egypt a few days ago with Syrian passports. Two of the men have confessed the shooting, he said. One was wounded in an exchange of fire with security men, Mr. Hassan declared.

Many Palestinians regarded Mr. Tal, who was closely associated with Jordan's King Hussein, as one of their most deadly opponents in the Jordanian leadership.

Barrier to Infiltration

Even if they do not go very deep into Cambodia, the South Vietnamese forces appear to be digging in for a protracted stay along the border 60 to 90 miles northwest of Saigon. Their presence alone is expected to discourage large-scale enemy infiltration toward the South Vietnamese capital during the current dry season.

Ground action in South Viet-
nam was largely limited to
minor shellings and ground
probes against militia outposts.

Two rockets hit Quangngai
city in the northern military
region, killing one civilian and
wounding another. A 60-round
mortar barrage caused no cas-
ualties at the fire base known
as Alpha 1, the easternmost
outpost along the demilitarized
zone.

The United States command
announced the phase-out of an-
other 75 helicopters, following
a cut of 120 aircraft yesterday.
Withdrawal of the 158th Avia-
tion Battalion, attached to the
101st Airborne Division, will
cut United States troop strength
in Vietnam by 325 men.