VIET SHELLS, TANKS DRIVE GUERRILLAS FROM AMPIL CAMP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504680014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: January 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504680014-7 -STATE
tT1c c JP? EA' ED
WASHINGTON '1 P i S
S January 1985
Viet shells, tanks
drive guerrifias
Ampil
frOm camp.
Pichai Nippittavit, a correspon- Frontline accounts put the num- The Khmer Rouge fields more
dent for the Associated Press who ber of Vietnamese attackers at than 30,000 fighters, the KPNLF
wrote this dispatch, was one of only 1,000, against about 5,000 guerrillas about 12,000 and the Sihanouk.
three reporters known to have of the non-communist KPNLF. loyalists about 5,000. Western esti
entered the battlefield of Ampil. The mates say the Vietnamese have
other- iwo were from Thai newsp But the biggest weapon in tlie-
a guerrillas' arsenal are 82mm recoil- about 160,000 troops in Cambodia:
pers~ less rifles, Chinese copies of a 1950s As the Vietnamese armor.`.rum-
- AMPIL, Cambodia YAP) - Viet=' vintage Soviet design The defend bled into Ampil, clouds of smoke
namese forces laid down a huge," rose from the camp. One armored
pre-dawn artillery barrage on Ampit ers also relied on mortars, heavy I vehicle clanked up the camp's main
guerrilla headquarters yesterday, machine guns and B-40 rocket road about 1,600 feet from the com-
then broke through three outer 'propelled grenades. Individual mand bunker. .
guerrillas were armed mostly with defense rings in a tank-led push to Some defenders rushed from
AK-47 assault rifles. A it d
Thai officers said.
we heart of the camp, witnesses and mp an sought shelter near an
Maj. Gen. Salya Sriphen, Thai anti-tank ditch on the Thai side of
E
About three-quarters of the camp
was in Vietnamese hands late yester-
day, Lt. Gen. Pichitr Kullavanijaya,
commander of Thailand's 1st Army
Region reported in Bangkok.
At least 20 guerrillas were killed
and parts of the base were
destroyed, said intelligence sources
in the Thai Army's Eastern Task
Force.
A reporter who slipped into Ampil
at 10 a.m. saw panicky guerrillas
flee when armor broke through
Ampil's defenses and plunged into
the center of the Khmer People's
National Liberation Front headquar-
ters.
(In Washington, the Cambodian-
American community protested
yesterday at Lafayette Park against
the Vietnamese occupation of
Kampuchea, also known as Cambo-
dia, and their attacks on resistance
and refugee camps.
(A letter sent to President Reagan
requested him to consider- emer-
gency refugee relief programs for
the victims of fighting on the
Kampuchean border It also asked
him to use diplomatic pressure to
ask Vietnam to respect the U.N. res-
olution calling for its withdrawal
from Kampuchea so that free and
democratic elections could take
place.)
Gen. Pichitr said the Vietnamese
did not gain much militarily because
they failed to wipe out the guerrilla
defenders, who split into small
groups and slipped. away. He said
sporadic fighting continued.
astern Force commander, told the border. Several ran from the
reporters in the village of Ban San- tanks faster than three fleeing
gae, Thailand, right across the bor- reporters.
der from the battlefield, that the Thai troops dug in across the fron-
Ampil defenders destroyed three of tier as stray shells from the fighting
the Soviet-supplied T-54 tanks and fell in Thai territory. Gen. Salya
two M-113 armored personnel carri- reported that shell fragments
ers. wounded four Thai soldiers. He said
The big Vietnamese guns fell more than 4,400 Thai civilians were
silent for 10 minutes every hour as evacuated from the area to safety.
the artillerymen adjusted the range. Ampil, 175 miles east of Bangkok,
Then they would start up again. had been the last major camp of the
The guerrillas had anticipated an KPNLF still intact in Hanoi's latest
attack yesterday - the sixth anni- dry-season offensive, which began in
versary of the Vietnamese capture'
mid-November.
of Phnom Penh, the capital of A Thai official speaking by tele-
Kampuchea. phone from Ubon Ratchathani prov-
The Vietnamese, who are allied ince said Vietnamese forces had
with the Soviets, invaded Kampu- overrun KPNLF bases at Nong Chan,
chea in late 1978 and drove the Obok, Rithisen and Sok Sonh and a
Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge Khmer Rouge camp at Nam Yun.
regime from Phnom Penh on Jan. 7,
1979.
Ampil's 23,500 civilians evac-
.. uated the camp more than a week
ago to a U.N.-prepared evacuation
site 2.5 miles inside Thailand.
Thai officers said more tanks -
as many as 20 by some accounts -
were in action yesterday than on any
other single day in six years of
fighting on the border.
. The KPNLF is among three guer-
rilla organizations battling the
Vietnamese-installed regime of
Heng Samrin in Kampuchea. The
other two are the communist Khmer
Rouge and a group loyal to Prince
Norodom Sihanouk former head of
state in Cambodia.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP9O-00965ROO0504680014-7