Word: phnom-penh
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Artillery bombarded Phnom-Penh last week, inflicting the most serious damage on the capital in nearly four years of war. Taking advantage of the dry season, Khmer Rouge insurgents moved their forces to within 4½ miles of the city and shelled it over a period of five days with captured U.S.-made 105-mm. howitzers. During the attacks, at least 1,200 of the 25-lb. shells rained upon the refugee-packed capital, demolishing flimsy makeshift huts and killing more than 100 civilians...
...howitzers. Military observers believe that the insurgents are merely lying low, waiting for the government forces to withdraw before resuming the attacks. Said a Western military expert: "Neither side is strong enough to win, or weak enough to lose." A sure loser, however, will be once graceful and tranquil Phnom-Penh. With seven months remaining in the dry season, the capital faces a long, painful siege...
...minute chopper ride; getting out was not so simple. Deterred by ground fire, the choppers had stopped landing. I decided to ride out with the night convoy. The trip upriver takes 24 to 30 hours, because the boats are heavily loaded, but the return trip to Phnom-Penh is only five or six hours...
...called out; one vomited blood and twisted in pain. Most suffered silently. At three points on the voyage, insurgents fired mortar and machine-gun rounds at the boats, providing a fearfully beautiful display of red and yellow flashes in the clear moonlight. By the time we arrived at Phnom-Penh, some of the 400 wounded had died; others were unconscious as they were loaded onto trucks for the trip to the jampacked hospital...
Some have called the battle of Kompong Cham a dress rehearsal for the expected siege of Phnom-Penh. Others have said that it was a diversion to drain off the best of President Lon Nol's troops. Still others have insisted that it was a major insurgent effort in which the rebels were soundly beaten. Some or all of these theories may be true. What is certain is that it was another bitter round in a senseless...