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Battle for Muttur ends as LTTE withdraws fighters

B. Muralidhar Reddy

50 civilians killed in hostilities, over 40,000 displaced

COLOMBO: The four-day battle between the Sri Lanka military and the LTTE for control of Muttur town in the Trincomalee district in east, which led to killing of over 50 civilians and displacement of nearly 40,000 persons, came to a halt on Saturday.

The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) claimed the Tigers beat a hasty retreat in the face of an intense military operation. However, LTTE said withdrawal of its cadres from the strategic town came after they accomplished the "military objectives," which have not been specified.

With the town cut off from the rest of the globe, there was no way of verifying the bombastic claims and counter claims. The SLA said in the course of the operation 152 cadres of the LTTE were killed. Besides, it said the retreating Tamil Tigers massacred over 100 civilians in and around the town.

Muttur battle began on Wednesday after LTTE succeeded in infiltrating into the Government controlled territory. In the aftermath of the bloody gun battles involving the SLA and the LTTE, an estimated 40,000 persons of the Muslim-dominated town left their homes.

Fierce battle

]SLA and LTTE have been engaged in the bloodiest ground battle, since the 2002 Norwegian brokered Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), for over 10 days now after the Tamil Tigers blocked a waterway. The battle spread to Batticaloa and Trincomalee.

Most of the citizens of Muttur had taken shelter in the educational and religious institutions. From Thursday onwards a number of civilians made a beeline for exit resulting in a serious humanitarian crisis. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) Head Ulf Henricsson visited the town after the two sides agreed to hold their fire during his stay in the area.

The military spokesman of LTTE, Irasaiah Ilanthiayan, told TamilNet that the LTTE troops, by midnight Friday, returned to their original positions as per February 22, 2002 Ceasefire Agreement. Quoting LTTE sources it said 32 rebel fighters were killed in action.

Separately, the military urged all civilians who abandoned Muttur centre and suburb to resettle in their homesteads. "Members of security forces are now busy with relief activities carried out to salvage civilians stranded inside houses and other locations to which they ran to avoid gunfire between security forces and LTTE terrorists after the LTTE men infiltrated the area and launched attacks on government forces on Tuesday early hours", the military said.

The military alleged that LTTE gunmen, while shooting fleeing civilians, charged that civilians in Pachchanoor were collaborating with security forces and that they are traitors.

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