Fierce fighting in South Vietnam: 900 Vietcong killed

Saigon: United States and South Vietnamese infantrymen reported killing almost 900 Vietcong in heavy fighting raging all over South Vietnam.

At least 60 Americans were officially reported killed and more than 250 wounded during the fighting yesterday.

Government forces reported that an Infantry Company suffered heavy casualties in one battle and another moderate losses elsewhere.

The biggest and bloodiest battle of the day cam in the Vietcong stronghold of War Zone “C”, near the Cambodian border, where men of the US Fourth Infantry Division hurled back a regiment-size Guerrilla attack and claimed they had slain at least 596 Vietcong.

A military spokesman said the American were still counting bodies today as they pushed through the flat scrublands and forests 70 miles northwest of Saigon in the biggest US offensive of the Vietnam War.

US Air Force jet fighter bombers flew a total of 117 bombing missions in support of the infantrymen who are taking part in operation “Junction city”.

The fighting Vietcong gunners shot down a light spotter plane as it flew low over their positions directing air strikes. The spokesman said the plan exploded killing both crewmen.