Monday, June 04, 2007

Heavy fighting continues

More than 60 fighters were killed in heavy fighting continued for the second day yesterday at the Vavuniya defence lines, military and rebel reports said.

"Fierce fighting is still going on in the Pampaimadu areas on the Vavuniya Forward Defence lines, where hundreds of Tigers launched a heavy attack on the military on Saturday night," a senior military official in the area said. In the retaliatory attack by the forces, 52 terrorists were killed and a large number was wounded. The terrorists who fled in the face of army retaliation had abandoned a haul of arms and ammunition, the Media Center for National Security said.

"LTTE fired mortars and artillery targeting the Vavuniya FDLs at 9 pm on Saturday. Tiger attempts to infiltrate the FDLs during the fire fight were successfully repulsed," an official of the MCNS said. He said child soldiers too were involved in the attack.

"It is reported until yesterday ten soldiers had been killed and twenty injured," the official said.

"We have launched a search operation in the Mullikulam area, where a large number of LTTE cadres remain trapped," he said.

However, unofficial reports claimed the major Tiger assault destroyed an army small ammunition dump and the rebels had infiltrated the military defences, though the military had managed to drive them back. The military had later launched an artillery barrage using multi barrel rocket launchers into Tiger held areas causing heavy damage to the rebels.

Meanwhile, LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan told a news agency they destroyed a key government artillery position and weapons depot during the battle. "Storage and artillery units were destroyed and were burning till dawn," Ilanthirayan had said, adding that some 10 government soldiers were killed.

In the east - Thoppigala - heavy fighting that began last Friday continued yesterday, as government forces and the LTTE were locked in heavy fighting, the military said.

The clashes erupted last Friday as the military mounted a major operation to wipe out the Tigers from Thoppigala, where some hundreds of Tigers were reportedly trapped.

(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/06/04/front/3.asp)

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