Wednesday, May 3, 1972
Cambodians, Reds Clash On Highway 1
PHNOM PENH (UPI) --The Cambodian high command viewed the military situation Monday on Highways 1 and 7 as "still serious" and reported 3 killed and 33 wounded in a government counterattack on Highway 1, 35 miles southeast of Phnom Penh.The isolated province capitals of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng were reported to be surrounded buy not under attack 27 and 66 miles to the southeast.Troops who fled heavy pressure on the border town of Bavet were returned to Phnom Penh from South Vietnam by plane and two companies of Cambodians left behind when South Vietnamese troops fled a second border town, Kompong Trach, were also reported to be safe. The high command declined to give the whereabouts of the companies for security reasons.The situation on Highway 7, which runs northeast from Phnom Penh to Kompong Thom, the easternmost province capital under government control, was downgraded from critical to serious. Government troops linked up several besieged towns, leaving all but a 3-mile stretch open to military traffic.Commenting on the military situation, command spokesman Chhang Song said the government was in "radio and resupply contact" with Prey Veng and Svay Rieng. Field reports confirmed that the two towns were in the radio contact and that the main combat area was the government's attempted counterattack.The field reports said government troops pushing out of the South Vietnamese and Cambodian base of Neak Luong on the Mekong River had run into stiff resistance from regular North Vietnamese units "using new weapons that the Cambodian troops have not seen before.""Cambodians, Reds Clash on Highway 1", by (UPI) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Wednesday, May 3, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.