Friday, April 28, 1972
2 Cambodia Cities In Pressure Cooker
PHNOM PENH (AP) --Communist pressure around two southeastern Cambodian provincial capitals "continues to give cause for anxiety," the Khmer high command reported Wednesday.An official communiqué reported fighting within two miles of Svay Rieng, the chief city of the province with the same name, and added that Prey Veng city, capital of Prey Veng Province, was hit by 11 82mm mortar shells during the night.Both Svay Rieng and Prey Veng provinces were virtually overrun by a North Vietnamese and Viet Cong assault last week. Prey Veng is 29 miles southeast of Phnom Penh and Svay Rieng is 68 miles southeast of the Cambodian capital.The high command said no details of casualties or damage around Svay Rieng and Prey Veng from Tuesday night's fighting had reached Phnom Penh.Last week, Communist forces also seized more than 50 miles of Highway 1, the main Phnom Penh-Saigon road, and one of Cambodia's supply lifelines. Tuesday night, the high command reported that the Communists again struck at the highway, hitting the town of Bavet on the South Vietnamese border and 102 miles southeast of Phnom Penh.The Cambodian communiqué said one Khmer was killed during the fighting at Bavet and claimed the Communist left behind several dead when their assault force withdrew.The high command also reported the Communists used gas during the bombardment of a Cambodian position at Boeung Krum, about 15 miles southeast of Phnom Penh on the Mekong River. Nine Khmer soldiers were "asphyxiated," the communiqué said, adding that the gas shell was only part of the bombardment during which about 50 82mm mortar shells and short range B40 rockets hit the position.An independent check of the Khmer claims have almost always shown them to be exaggerated and one gas attack which the Khmers claimed was particularly poisonous turned out later to be made with American manufactured gas captured in South Vietnam, according to reliable sources."2 Cambodia Cities In Pressure Cooker", by Phnom Penh (AP) published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Friday, April 28, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.