Thais equip army with gas masks

The Thai Army says it has evidence that Vietnamese forces in Cambodia are using chemical weapons and has responded by equipping border patrols with gas masks.

Thailand's charge follows a US State Department allegation earlier this week that Soviet-backed forces in Laos, Cambodia, and Afghanistan were using deadly poisons.

Hospital officials at Ban Sangae, 180 miles east of Bangkok on the Thai-Cambodian border, said that foreign medical staff at some refugee camps had treated cases involving combat or nerve gas.

In its first reaction today, Vietnam dismissed the charges as an attempt to cover up American use of chemicals during the Vietnam war.