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DOUBT VIET !FCLAIM 243 iREDS KILLEDputMairfire.Bv GEORGE ESPER .... jthe ’!12:3(Associated Press Writer .. p0for a A fo n tt:qua-nadiSATGON CAP) — South Vietnamese forces today claimed 273 North Vietnamese killed in two battles in the Bu Prang-Due Lap area of the central highr lands. U.S. artillery and planesI did most of the killing. AuThe heaviest fighting was two miles esat of Bug Prang where 243 enemy were reported killed. Informants said South Vietnamese casualties in the daylong battle Monday were only 11 wounded because each time the government troops met stiff resistance, they pulled back and called on American aircraft andATwMLAJoneTO 1lot Iartillery. ; rec(^The government claim of 243 North Vietnamese killed wassomewhat suspect. A search aft 3,nin th A2rcd.n-wtoar 1, a r-the I porte loeker-r-a-10GPA las A death1.Img vPolknow are 1 Jenkier the battle turned up only si?: weapons and aerial observer; To counted some of the oncmv! tcP01 dead. * mg tIn the other battle, five miles ^hur south of Due Lap, 30 North Vietnamese were killed while South Vietnamese casualties were seven killed and 11 wounded.Government forces sweeping ! f the battlefield at Bu Prang m-: ported finding some bodies of North Vietnamese soldiers chained to trees and to each other to keep them from retreating under the onslaught of American firepower. There have been j ^^oth similar reports in the past.^ ! The fighting was touched off when a battalion of 400 South Vietnamese infantrymen on a sweep outside the camp’s perimeter came under fire from aj r‘: woodline. ' 1e ■ The government soldiers with- Mt.1 n , drew after a heavy exchange of |n, 5 i rifle and machine-gun fire, and i 'more than 20 U.S. F4 and F100 i n ! fighter bombers raked the| North Vietnamese troops withh j bombs, napalm and rockets less ’• ‘ than a mile east of the camp r I perimeter. Some of the North h | Vietnamese force, estimated at I k j BOO men. were caught in t b e 111tie'open. .Shortly before dusk the bom-j™ m bardment eased and the South! ,oarlt; Vietnamese infantrymen again c went into the area. Again they- i encountered stiff resistance,- j again they pulled back, and the 1 fighter-bombers renewed their Jattacks in after-dark raids,- guided by the light of napalm “ * o | fires still burning from the ear- plt; rvwe vwithspencwas night Incounc 1. iI Her strikes.j The North Vietnamese shelled a! the Bu Prang camp twice today, i once at dawn with 40 mortar rounds, then at midmorning with 12 rounds of artillery fired from across the border in Cam-s bodia.One south Vietnamese soldier was killed and seven 6ove™-monf trnnnc and twr» AmericanRogei ern I told time will 1 this v 2.
Newspaper Details
Mt Vernon Register News
Mt Vernon, Illinois, US
Tue, Nov 18, 1969
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Robert T.
NY, USA 20 Aug 2017
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