Army suffers another debacle in Vanni

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters in Kilinochchi and Killali have killed at least 600 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and wounded another 1600 in five separate clashes in the past five weeks alone.

In its latest attempt to advance towards LTTE held Kilinochchi in Vanni battlefront, SLA suffered heavy casualties with more than

100 soldiers killed and at least 250 wounded.

LTTE fighters inflicted the heavy casualties on Sri Lankan on Monday, December 22 when they repulsed a fresh offensive push, said Puleedevan quoting LTTE's field commanders.

Heavy fighting raged from 5:30 to 12:45 when the SLA attempted to advance from Uruththirapuram towards Kilinochchi and Iranaimadu.

Several corpses of the SLA soldiers were seen in the battlefield and the Tigers were engaged in seizing arms and ammunitions after routing the offensive on two fronts, Mr. Puleedevan further said.

The fresh offensive push comes after the Tigers claimed that the SLA suffered 60 deaths and more than 150 wounded in a preemptive strike by their offensive forces on Saturday, December 20.

Few days earlier, on Tuesday, December 16, SLA suffered heavy casualties with at least 250 soldiers killed and 750 injured when it deployed 7000 soldiers and launched a multi-front push towards Kilinochchi through Malayaalapuram, Kunchupparanthan, Murikandi and Pulikkulam. 

In the heavy battle that raged throughout the day till 4:00 p.m. along a wide stretch of the frontiers in Vanni, LTTE forces inflicted heavy casualties on the SLA troopers and recovered 28 dead bodies of the SLA soldiers.

On the same day LTTE defensive forces also thwarted an attempt by SLA to breakthrough Kilaali Forward Defence Line (FDL) in Jaffna peninsula, killing 40 SLA soldiers and wounding more than 120.

The SLA launched its offensive push at 1:30 a.m and after 9 hours of heavy fighting, the SLA was forced to pull back its troops, with heavy casualties, at 10:30 a.m.

8 bodies of SLA soldiers were recovered in Kilaali, bringing the total number of dead bodies recovered by the LTTE that today to 36.

Photographs of the dead bodies of the Sri Lankan soldiers, recovered by the LTTE, has lately exposed Colombo's use of fresh recruits from the south in the intensive battle front in Kilinochchi. The latest photo has also revealed that Colombo is victimising Sinhalese children in its offensive front in Vanni.

The Tigers said they have seized several weapons in the clearing mission.

Third debacle

The latest is the third major reversal SLA has suffered within a space of one month in the Vanni battlefront.

"This is the third debacle of the SLA in Kilinochchi district within the past few weeks," S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat told TamilNet.

On Wednesday December 10, a two-pronged SLA offensive on Kilinochchi was pushed back by LTTE fighters after heavy fighting in Puthumurippu in the west of Kilinochchi and Ariviyal Nakar in which over 120 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in action and more than 280 were wounded.

In late November, at least 75 SLA soldiers were killed and 160 wounded when LTTE forces beat back attempts by Sri Lankan military advance towards Kilinochchi through Naloor on Poonari-Paranthan road.