The World - News from Dec. 6, 1987

The chief of South Africa’s armed forces said that Pretoria’s troops are withdrawing from Angola after intervening there in support of anti-Marxist rebels during heavy fighting. The announcement by Gen. Jannie Geldenhuys coincided with a report that Cuban reinforcements had arrived in Angola and might join government forces in an attack on the South Africans if Pretoria did not withdraw its troops. The rebels claim they beat back a major government offensive in late October and early November. South Africa has provided military aid to UNITA--the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola--which has been fighting the government since Angola won independence from Portugal in 1975.