Sri Lanka: Tamil Tigers claim they destroyed army tank
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Wednesday, 23 April 2008 |
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Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers who are fighting for a separate state said yesterday that heavy fighting erupted in the northern Muhamalai area yesteday morning — a day after the military claimed it had captured a key guerrilla base in the northwestern Mannar sector.
Pro-rebel web sites said the Tamil Tigers’ anti-tank unit destroyed a Sri Lanka army’s battle tank when the guerrillas launched a counter-offensive to quash security forces’ advance towards the rebel territory on Tuesday morning. The web site reports said scores of security forces personnel were either killed or wounded in the battle but did not give a specific casualty figure. Muhamalai, lying south of Jaffna, the capital of the Northern Province, is one of the four main entry-exit points to the rebel-held territory of Wanni. Other three entry-exit points are Welioya in the northeast, Vavuniya that lies south of Wanni and Mannar in the northwest. TThe web site reports also said the guerrillas also attacked a mortar-launch pad used by the security forces at Ezhuthumadduvaa’l in Thenmaraachchi near Jaffna. The launch pad was engulfed in a major fire, the reports said. The military did not report about any battle in Muhamalai yesterday. However, it said that in Monday’s battles in Muhamalai, the army destroyed four Tamil Tiger bunkers. One soldier and one rebel were injured in the battle, the military said. The daily security report released by the government-run Media Centre for National Security said yesterday that 17 rebels were killed in three separate encounters on Monday. According to the media centre, the heaviest battle took place in Welioya where nine rebels were killed and eight wounded. Also on Monday, the military said troops captured a key Tamil Tiger base in Mannar after a dawn operation. “The security forces captured on Monday morning the Tamil Tigers’ Lima Base – 3, killing seven guerrillas,” Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. “The Tigers were taken by surprise when the troops made a sudden move towards the key base,” he said. Meanwhile, Norway yesterday condemned the killing of a Catholic human rights priest in a roadside bomb on Monday.
In a statement issued through its Colombo embassy, Norway said it condemned the “killing which further adds to the already far too high civilian toll of the ongoing conflict.
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