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40 LTTE cadres killed: Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s military on Sunday claimed at least 40 LTTE cadres were killed in fighting along the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in the past 48 hours amid raids conducted by the Air Force SLAF on an “LTTE gathering point.”

A Defence Ministry statement said military formations broke into “LTTE defences in multi-pronged offensives” in Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya. It claimed at least 27 cadres were killed and 20 others wounded. The ministry said one soldier died and 21 were injured.

The Air Force on Saturday claimed to have bombed “an LTTE leaders gathering place” located in the Puthukkudiyiruppu area. Air Force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said the location targeted was an identified “command centre” of the LTTE, located northeast of Puthukkudiyiruppu.

The Air Force received information that a meeting of LTTE leaders was taking place at the centre. However, the military was yet to assess damages suffered by the LTTE. Separately, the military claimed the Tigers “continued to suffer heavy losses in Wanni.” It said 11 soldiers were injured in the fighting.

In another development, the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a statement issued here expressed “its deep anguish” over the killing of civilians in different parts of the country.

“In the Wanni, Tamil civilians, men, women and children are killed in large numbers by aerial bombing, multi–barrel artillery shelling and claymore attacks by deep penetration units. These are regular occurrences and are reported in the media. It is within the power of the government to bring to an end such indiscriminate killings of Tamil civilians,” the statement said. The TNA said civilians were killed by explosive attacks in other parts of the country and such killings caused immense suffering to families involved and created a sense of insecurity amongst the civilian. “We wish to appeal that all such violence be brought to an end,” said TNA parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan.

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