1.
GV Helicopter arrives with ARVN colonel on board to observe shelling
0.10

2.
SV & GV Troops in camp preparing for shelling
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3.
SV & CU ARVN officer looks at map
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4.
SV Troops prepare shells PAN TO gun firing
0.45

5.
GV & SV 105 mm gun firing (3 shots)
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6.
GV Troops move off towards village (5 shots)
1.52



Initials BB/1741 JT/AH/BB/1758



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Government troops shelled and then searched the village of Go Noi 28 miles (42 klms) north-east of Saigon, on Wednesday and Thursday (4th and 5th July). They suspected that it had been infiltrated by communist troops. The Government forces shelled it with 105 mm. artillery and afterwards moved in to search.

Such incidents seem quite common in South Vietnam, despite the renegotiated ceasefire which came into force on June 16th. The heaviest fighting between Government and communist troops has taken place near Kontum in the Central Highlands and in the Mekong Delta south-west of Saigon.

SYNOPSIS: A colonel form the Saigon Military High Command arrived at the village of Go Noi, twenty-eight miles north-east of Saigon, on Wednesday.

He was there to direct a military operation against a local village, to be shelled and searched by some government soldiers camped nearby. They suspected that the village had been infiltrated by communist troops. Fresh communist forces have recently been slipping over the border from the Khmer Republic and North Vietnam.

Though a new ceasefire agreement between government and communist forces came into operation on June 15th, violations continued to be common. The Government say this kind of operation is necessary to prevent the communists seizing more land.

Go Noi is near Saigon, but the heaviest fighting has been going on elsewhere in South Vietnam. Tay Ninh has been the scene of bitter conflict ever since the first ceasefire in January, because it lies between Saigon and the Khmer border. There has also been heavy fighting along Highway Four to the Mekong Delta and around Kontum in the Central Highlands.

After the shelling, the troops moved in to search the village. Such operations make life very hazardous for members of the International Commission for the Control and Supervision of the Ceasefire (ICCS) who are trying to keep the peace. A search has been going on for two Canadian members of the commission who are missing. The search has been concentrated on a communist-controlled rubber plantation 3.5 miles to the Hungarian officials have been trying to make contact with local Vietcong and negotiations have been going on with the Saigon Delegation of the Vietcong's Provisional Revolutionary Government.