1.
South Vietnamese armoured carrier on fire
4 ft

2.
Bodies of dead commandos (two shots)
9 ft

3.
Casualties carried away on stretcher (two shots)
18 ft

4.
Cambodians pull Communist bodies
22 ft

5.
Captured AK-47s and rockets (two shots)
27 ft

6.
Communist bodies laid out
31 ft

7.
Truck on fire
34 ft

8.
Helicopter landing to evacuate casualties
41 ft

9.
Casualties taken to helicopter (two shots)
52 ft

10.
Helicopter takes off, bodies in f/g
56 ft

11.
Evacuees lined up at village nearby
58 ft

12.
Trucks loaded for evacuation (three shots)
69 ft

13.
People board trucks
76 ft

14.
Army volunteers drive away, waving
84 ft



Initials ends/jt/vs/ac



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The North Vietnamese are now using suicidal warfare tactics in Cambodia. Just after two o'clock one morning last week, two companies of naked Communist commandos, their bodies blackened with soot, fought their way into a South Vietnamese task force camp at Kandaoi Chrum in Kompong Cham Province north-east of Phnom Penh.

Dawn rose on a grisly sight. The bodies of 17 commandos littered the camp with another 37 outside. They never stood a chance against the entrenched South Vietnamese who were assisted by Cambodians. But they inflicted severe casualties: 16 dead and 37 wounded on the government side with several tanks and trucks knocked out.

The North Vietnamese were armed with AK-47 machine-guns and used a new type of Russian rocket fired from a tube which fits into the muzzle of the AK-47. They fought tenaciously and got to within seven metres of the command bunker.

Later South Vietnamese helicopters came in to evacuate the dead and wounded to Tay Ninh across the border in South Vietnam. As the helicopters picked up the casualties, South Vietnamese patrols scoured the nearby paddyfields for guerillas.

With the North Vietnamese troops in the area, the Cambodian authorities decided to evacuate Cambodian refugees who had been sheltering in a village near the Kandaoi Chrum task force camp. While the older people were sent to a safer place, the younger men decided to join the Cambodian Army and were driven off to Phnom Penh in South Vietnamese Army trucks to begin training.

During the attack, Visnews cameraman Lucien Coudoux (pronounced Coo-dooks) was in a Cambodian bunker which was twice hit by 82mm mortar shells from the Communist covering fire. A medical officer alongside him was killed.