Word: mortars
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...African and Rhodesian mercenaries captured the tactically critical towns of Benguela and Lobito. Though the mechanized troops are still 400 miles from Luanda, there were few obstacles left between them and the capital. North of Luanda, meanwhile, F.N.L.A. forces were within 18 miles of the city and scarcely a mortar's lob from the capital's sole source of water. They claimed that they would wait only until the last of the Portuguese were gone before assaulting the city. The M.P.L.A. was ready. "We will succeed in the long run," said one commander, "thanks to Comrade...
...Russian-made AK-47 automatic rifles-the most common weapon on both sides-stacked in a corner of the dining room. Lunch was a pleasant affair, filled with interesting conversation; when it was over the host invited his guest to view the city from his roof. There sat a mortar, pointed in the general direction of the battle lines of the day. As the Frenchman watched in shock, the merchant dropped three quick rounds down the tube. What was he shooting at? "Ah, those Moslems," said the man, with a casual wave of his hand...
...solve the religious and class differences that underlay the shooting. Bulldozers had hardly cleared away old rubble from previous fighting when debris came crashing down into the streets from new explosions. Random incidents, typical of the insanity that stalks Lebanon today, added to the intensity of the fighting. Two mortar rounds, apparently fired on aim less trajectories from undisclosed positions, hit a street in one of Beirut's Moslem quarters where harried housewives had queued up to buy bread; 24 were killed and 40 wounded. A rocket round elsewhere took the lives of five young children. Christians were appalled...
Angry Turks. In 1966 the government offered to help residents of Lice relocate their homes on safer, flatter terrain below the existing village. Only 150 families were willing to make the move. Their reinforced concrete homes-unlike the older stone and mortar houses on the hillside-survived the recent earthquake with only slight damage. After a special five-hour Cabinet meeting last week, Turkey's Premier Suleyman Demirel promised that an estimated $35 million would be spent to house all the survivors of Lice in similarly quake-proof homes. The U.S. was expected to offer help, but the Turks...
...atrocities. North American Newspaper Alliance's Ernest Hemingway, by all accounts a mediocre correspondent, proved to be a dangerous nuisance as well. On at least one visit to the front he insisted on firing a machine gun toward the Franco lines. The result, reported one witness, was "a mortar bombardment for which he did not stay...