Use of Chemical Arms Charged to S. Africa

LISBON — South African troops backed by planes, tanks and artillery used chemical weapons in attacks inside southern Angola last month, the official Angolan news agency Angop reported Wednesday from Luanda.

In a dispatch monitored in Lisbon, it said the South Africans, who numbered 6,800, suffered “incalculable” casualties and had 11 armored vehicles destroyed in battles with Angolan troops in Namibe, Cunene and Huila provinces.

Much of the fighting between June 1 and 29 took place around Ngiva, a strategic town just north of the border with Namibia which has previously been used by South Africa as a staging post for incursions into Angola. The South Africans appeared to be trying to create a buffer zone in the area to allow free movement by rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Angop said.