Sri Lankan troops launched a limited offensive in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Sunday, killing six LTTE militants and wounding nine others, the army said. A defence spokesman described it as a 'limited clearing operation' ahead of the army's forward defence line in the Muhamalai and Kilaly sectors. One officer and 11 soldiers were wounded in the operation, he said.
Elsewhere in the Island, security forces killed seven rebels on Saturday, four of them in a confrontation west of Welioya in the north-east, and three in an ambush in the Vanni mainland, 18 km north of Vavuniya. Meanwhile, the LTTE has handed over seven bodies of soldiers killed in its attempt to overrun the Kokkuthoduvaai army camp on August 23, taking the death toll among the security forces in that attack to 14. Two more soldiers are still missing after the offensive.
Representatives of the international committee of the Red Cross received the bodies at the Piramanalaankulam checkpoint in Vauniya district from the LTTE. The army also claimed that 17 LTTE cadres were killed in that operation, taking the combined death toll, which was stated to be 15 on the day of the attack, to 31. The 17 dead rebels included two self-styled majors and four 'lieutenants', a military statement said.
Bureau Report