11 Killed as Vietnam Shells Refugee Camp

ARANYAPRATHET, Thailand —  Vietnamese artillery pounded a U.N.-supported Cambodian refugee camp near the Thai border today, killing 11 people and wounding 14 others as they ate breakfast, the Thai military and the Red Cross said.

The shelling, ending several months of silence from Vietnamese artillery along the border, followed a nearby skirmish between Khmer Rouge guerrillas and Vietnamese troops, the military said.

Military sources said a shell barrage blasted several thatch homes in the middle of Site 8, a U.N.-supported camp of 30,000 about a mile inside Thailand.

“About seven shells landed in the middle as people were eating breakfast. Everyone panicked and ran,” a Thai army officer said. Three other shells landed just outside the camp.

A senior Red Cross official, citing final casualty reports, said that two children were among the 11 people killed, and that seven of the 14 wounded are in serious condition.

Site 8 contains followers of the Khmer Rouge, who ruled Cambodia until they were sent fleeing to the Thai border by invading Vietnamese troops in January, 1979.