194 Tigers killed in Lanka fighting

The military had said in a statement issued yesterday that troops had repulsed the attack and were in “full control” of the area and that clearing operations were under way.

But today’s statement said, “confrontations have continued during the clearing operations in Paranthan and Killinochchi areas.”

“LTTE has confirmed 194 of their cadres killed. A total of 43 soldiers were killed and 110 wounded during these confrontations,” the brief statement said.

“Sporadic confrontations are being reported at present,” it added.

This is the bloodiest fighting reported in recent weeks in the region, where the government forcesare engaged in a massive offensive to capture a key highway, the statement noted.

The control of the 75-km Vavuniya-Killinochchi highway is vital for the government to open a land route to the Jaffna peninsula further north which was captured by troops in early 1996.

The offensive to capture the road was launched in May 1997, but the troops have not been able to advance beyond the township of Mankulam, 30 km south of Killinochchi, due to heavy resistance by the militants.

The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation reported that most of the LTTE fighters killed in the clashes in the last two days were women cadres.

Meanwhile, military sources said a member of the LTTE’s “pistol group” shot dead a soldier — a rebel who had surrendered to the forces — and a civilian in front of a hospital at Muttur in the eastern Trincomalee district on Monday.

They said the surrendered rebel had been apparently taken near the hospital to identify LTTE members or sympathisers.