PHNOM PENH, March 31: Cambodian troops and Khmer Rouge defectors have made slow but steady progress into the rebels' northern stronghold of Anlong Veng and have captured a tank, a senior military officer said Tuesday. The combined forces, which late Saturday had established a small but tenuous foothold in Anlong Veng at the base of the Phnom Dangrek mountain on the Thai border, are now under full control of the village and are moving into the hills, according to Major General Chea Saran, Chief of Military Operations.``We are continuing to move North,'' Chea Saran said by telephone from the northern town of Siem Reap where the operation to take Anlong Veng is headquartered.
He said about 200 more fighters from Khmer Rouge division 519 had joined the government on Monday and were participating in the effort to take the remaining guerrilla areas and capture their senior leadership, including deposed supremo Pol Pot who is now under house arrest.
The leadership, including feared military chief Ta Mok, wholast year supplanted Pol Pot, and political leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, are believed to have taken refuge in a well-fortified mountain-top retreat just metres (yards) from the Thai border, he said.
The enclave, known as Hill 200 or Chaem Srangam, was being defended by the remaining Khmer Rouge loyalists who the government believes number less than 1,000 men, Chea Saran said.
Analysts who follow the highly-secretive Khmer Rouge believe the government's assessment of the guerrillas' strength to be low and say the push into the hills is fraught with potentially fatal difficulties.
Hundreds of thousands of landmines are planted on the approaches into the mountains which are notorious for their dips and ridges and are thus easily defended by a small number of men.
``A boy and his dog could hold that area,'' said one western military analyst familiar with the terrain.
``There is no way to make any kind of traditional assault there, you have to hope and pray that they just give up. If they don'Tgive up, there's going to be a lot of blood and missing limbs.''
Meanwhile, local newspapers confirmed earlier reports that the historic Khmer Rouge-held mountain-top temple of Preah Vihear was now in government hands after the guerrillas there defected to the government.
On Sunday deputy chief of staff Meas Sophea said Preah Vihear, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) east of Anlong Veng, had fallen without a struggle.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
