After being repulsed Khmer troops make new drive to Highway Two (Visnews production number 10670-72)

Voters trickled to the polls in Phnom Penh in a parliamentary election on Sunday (3 September), as government troops outside the capital city tried to break a tightening communist encirclement that has all but cut it off from the rest of the country. The election is designed to complete Marshal Lon Nol's programme to restore a measure of democratic activity under the constitution that he personally drew up and introduced last April. Security in the capital was strict, but Phnom Penh is still cut off from all major provincial towns, except for Kompong Cham in the northeast and the small port of Kompong Som in the west. South of the city, government troops have been trying to reopen Highway Two and relieve at least two besieged Khmer outposts.
After having been repulsed by communist forces three times in five days, government troops of the 1st Infantry Brigade finally managed to reopen a portion of Highway Two, only to have it cut off behind them. Visnews cameraman Neil Davis filmed the action.