Killed 400 Chinese on Border, Vietnam Says
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TOKYO — Vietnam says its forces have repulsed a border attack by Chinese troops, killing 400 of them, Radio Hanoi reported today.
The report came only days after China announced it would release for humanitarian reasons 15 Vietnamese captured while infiltrating Chinese territory.
The Radio Hanoi broadcast, monitored in Tokyo, charged that Chinese gunners fired almost 40,000 artillery and mortar rounds Dec. 21-25 across the border into Vietnam’s Ha Tuyen Province in support of the ground battle.
Radio Press, the Japanese monitoring agency, quoted the report as saying that Vietnamese troops fired back large rockets and destroyed a number military positions and ammunition depots. The report did not mention any Vietnamese casualties and could not be independently confirmed.
The two Communist neighbors have clashed along their border since since early 1979 when they fought a short border war.
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