- Title: ZAMBIA: AFTERMATH OF ZIMBABWE RHODESIAN RAID ON GUERRILLA CAMP AND HOUSES.
- Date: 12th July 1979
- Summary: 1. GV House badly damaged in Roma township just outside Lusaka (2 shots) 0.14 2. CU Damage to section of house 0.22 3. GV EXTERIOR House after raid 0.24 4. MV Remains of burnt out car CAMERA PANS AROUND gardens to show end of house destroyed (2 shots) 0.56 5. LV Chikumbi Freedom Camp workers in field 1.00 6. MV Damaged pigsty and p
- Embargoed: 27th July 1979 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROMA AND CHIKUMBI, ZAMBIA
- Country: Zambia
- Reuters ID: LVAEZ89E82AFFW5WP5NQE018POI5
- Story Text: Helicopter-borne Zimbabwe Rhodesian commandos and Air Force jets have recently blasted their way into Patriotic Front guerrilla bases in south eastern Zambia. The attack was in an area close to where Commonwealth leaders are due to meet next month for a conference to be opened by the Queen.
SYNOPSIS: Here in the northern Lusaka suburb of Roma, five helicopters dropped assault troops around the headquarters of the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army in a dawn raid on the 26th of June.
Eyewitnesses say the commandos opened fire with rockets and small arms on the house which is about a mile (1 1/2 kilometres) from where the Commonwealth Heads of State are due to meet.
Hospital sources in Lusaka say at least twenty people were killed in the attack while the Zimbabwe Rhodesian security forces say they lost one man, a special air squadron captain, and another member of the assault party was wounded. The guerrillas claim six Rhodesians and ten of their own men were killed in the fighting. At about the same time Hawker Hunter strike aircraft of the Zimbabwe Rhodesian Air Force pounded a guerrilla camp north of the capital.
At the Chikumbi Freedom Camp several agricultural officers lost their lives when a bomb hit a pigsty. The camp, which is eight miles (13 kilometres) from the capital, is being used as an agricultural training centre to grow food for refugees. It was first bombed in October last year when more than four hundred people were killed. Life at the camp is now returning to normal -- water pumps have been repaired and irrigation work has started once again.
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