Sunday, May 14, 1972
4 More Khmer Positions Fall
PHNOM PENH (UPI) --The Cambodian high command announced Friday the fall of four more government positions in the southern provinces, bringing the total to 11 since the border town of Kompong Trach was overrun April 30.Cambodian forces using pincer tactics this afternoon recaptured a bridge position on Highway 5, which links Phnom Penh to the rice warehouses of Battambang in the northwest about 160 miles away. Communist commandos had occupied the bridge, 40 miles northwest of the capital, after a predawn attack Thursday.According to the command spokesman, Maj. Chhang Song, 31 government troops were killed and 41 wounded during the battle for control of the bridge and eight Communist bodies were found in the field. The bridge itself was destroyed.The four latest positions lost were in Takeo province, less than 10 miles from the South Vietnamese border. Government troops withdrew from the four towns "under heavy enemy pressure" between May 9 and 10, Song said.In less than a month the Communists have gained control of a 20-mild deep stretch of Cambodia running the length of the country's southeastern border with Vietnam. In the same period the Communist have taken control of a 60-mile section of Highway 1, which links Phnom Penh with Saigon, and have relatively isolated the Cambodian capital and three provincial capitals.Military intelligence indicates that the North Vietnamese are trying to secure their two major infiltration corridors into South Vietnam's third and fourth military regions.In Phnom Penh, President Lon Nol Friday officially promulgated the new republican constitution and signed a decree governing the presidential elections scheduled for June 4.Under the new election laws Lon Nol has given the military the right to vote and hold office. The question of military vote had been a subject of great controversy during the framing of the constitution. The refusal of the constituent assembly to grant electoral rights to the military contributed to Lon Nol's dismissal of that body and decision to personally supervise the writing of the constitution.All prospective presidential candidates must declare and file necessary papers before midnight next Tuesday, the decree states.Under the rules it seems unlikely that the only declared candidate, Sim Var, Cambodia's ambassador to Japan, will be allowed to run. Sim Var is married to a Japanese and the decree explicitly excludes men with wives not born with Khmer nationality.In a statement published this week, high-ranking military officers urged Lon Nol to declare himself a candidate but he has not yet done so.Phnom Penh's Pochentong airport was shelled by Communist gunners Thursday night but no damage was reported. It was the fourth rocketing of the Cambodian capital since May 6 when heavy shellings killed 28 and wounded 135. Communist commandos followed up the shellings with a ground attack on a key bridge at the southern end of the city."4 More Khmer Positions Fall", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes, Sunday, May 14, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.