CAMBODIA:CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS LAUNCH COUNTER ATTACK AGAINST KHMER ROUGE GUERRILLAS POISED TO ATTACK BATTAMBANG

Record ID: 355426

  • Title: CAMBODIA:CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS LAUNCH COUNTER ATTACK AGAINST KHMER ROUGE GUERRILLAS POISED TO ATTACK BATTAMBANG
  • Date: 3rd May 1994
  • Summary: BATTAMBANG PROVINCE (MAY 3, 1994) 1. TANK MOVING TO FRONTLINE 2. ARMOURED CAR CARRYING TROOPS AND TANK ON ROAD 3. GOVERNMENT TROOPS FIRE LARGE FIELD GUN 4. DESERTED HOUSES IN VILLAGE NEAR BATTAMBANG 5. REFUGEES WITH CATTLE AND BELONGINGS ON ROAD 6. GOVERNMENT TROOPS ON THEIR WAY TO THE FRONTLINE SISOPHON, BANTAEY MEANCHHEY PR
  • Embargoed: 18th May 1994 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BATTAMBANG PROVINCE/ SISOPHON, BANTAEY MEANCHHEY PROVINCE, CAMBODIA
  • City:
  • Country: Cambodia
  • Reuters ID: LVA98IAZLDU9CPY6HD36IKO93YCF
  • Story Text: Backed by tanks, artillery, helicopter gunships and armoured cars, Cambodian government soldiers launched a strong counter-attack on Wednesday (May 4) against a 200-strong force of Khmer Rouge guerrillas poised to attack the northwestern city of Battambang.

    Fighting over the past 48 hours has caused extensive damage to homes, schools and government offices along Route 10 approaching Cambodia's second-largest city, forcing an exodus of relief workers and tens of thousands of residents.

    Several villages have been razed in the fighting, which has intensified as government forces continues a counter offensive.

    The main front separating the two opposing forces is now within 20 km (12.5 miles) of Battambang, with small bands of mobile guerrilla units attacking the outer perimeter sporadically over the past four days.

    The government army has pulled its long-range artillery back into Battambang city, positioning several batteries in the old Malaysian U.N. Battalion garrison inside city limits.

    U.N. Peacekeepers were deployed in Battambang for 18 months ahead of elections last May as part of a U.N.-brokered pact to end a 13-year civil war.

    Khmer Rouge strength on Route 10, which links Battambang with their retaken guerrilla headquarters at Pailin, was estimated at 200 to 300 fighters.

    The fighting has created more than 40,000 newly-displaced people strung out in pathetic columns along Route 10 alone, one U.N. Relief worker said, adding it was lagest internally refugee problem since 1989. Many of the villagers were making their way to camps used last year as resettlement bases for Cambodian refugees returning from Thailand.

    In Phnom Penh, prayers were held for those killed in an international peace march in Northern Cambodia earlier this week. A monk and a nun were killed when the peace marchers were caught in a crossfire between government troops and suspected Khmer Rouge guerillas. Hundreds of monks, nuns, and laymen have been holding peace marches across the country in an appeal for peace and national reconciliation.


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