1.
Trucks move along highway (2 shots)
10 ft

2.
Smoke flare burning
12 ft

3.
Choppers landing (2 shots)
20 ft

4.
Troops running to choppers (2 shots)
26 ft

5.
Choppers take off
36 ft



Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Elite South Vietnamese Rangers are being deployed to positions along Highway Four into the Mekong Delta in an effort to keep the strategic road open.

President Thieu has frequently stated that he believes the communist forces will launch an all-out assault on Dinh Tuong Province in the near future.

Military experts estimate there are an many as seven communist regiments in the province -- most of them from the 5th, 7th and 9th North Vietnamese divisions in the Parrot's Beak region of the Khmer Republic.

Highway Four is of vital importance to the Saigon government -- it carries much of the produce from the rice-rich Mekong Delta to the capital and from there to other areas in South Vietnam.

There have already been heavy clashes in at least six different areas of the province this week -- one of them only a kilometre (half a mile) from the spot where this film was taken.