On a provincial road in Kien Tuong Province this week, a Vietcong mine hit the leading truck in a South Vietnamese army convoy taking food and civilians to government outposts.

It was just one of a number of incidents in a week in which fighting in South Vietnam reached its fiercest level since the Paris peace accords were signed two years ago.

Good protection is a necessary precaution for government movements in Kien Tuong Province, 150 kms southwest of Saigon, which has been a long-time route for communist forces moving from the Khmer Republic into the Mekong Delta.

Minutes after the convoy halted, Vietcong snipers in nearby groves opened up with rifles fire. Civilians scurried for cover in roadside drains as government troops returned rifle and machine gun fire on the suspected ambush positions.

Nobody was killed or injured in this incident but machine guns on the armoured personnel carriers maintained the fire until the convoy had moved well clear of the ambush site.