Apr. 23, 1963 - Military sources said today that well-armed Viet Cong guerrillas (pictured) overran two strategic hamlets and routed two companies of South Vietnamese troops in An Xuyen Province last week. Strategic hamlets are fortified areas, surrounded by wire, in which members of the rural populace have been resettled. Sources said one company of Vietnamese regulars had suffered heavy losses during the fight and that a self-defense corps company defending the hamlets was completely wiped out. The site of the attack was U Minh Thuong, northwest of Thoi Binh in a rough mangrove area near the southern tip of South Vietnam. The area is considered one of the most thickly infested with Communist guerrillas in the country. The regular army company fought hard but was badly battered, according to one report. A large number of weapons are believed to have been lost and the two hamlets evidently were destroyed.
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