In stepped-up fighting, Sri Lankan security forces gunned down at least 43 Tamil Tigers and lost seven soldiers in the island's restive north, where the Air Force jets on Friday raided an LTTE transport base in the rebel-dominated Kilinochchi area.The aerial raid targeted the LTTE base located at two kms southwest of the depot junction in Selvanagar in Kilinochchi, the Defence Ministry said. The raid was launched based on information received through intelligence sources and air surveillances conducted for a long period, Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Andy Wijesooriya said. The pilots confirmed that the target was accurately hit, he said.
In ground clashes, at least nine Tigers were killed in south of Adampan in northwestern Mannar after troops destroyed seven LTTE bunkers yesterday, the Defence Ministry said.
In another incident, troops gunned down five rebels in Muhamale in Jaffna peninsula yesterday, the army said. One army officer and a solder were killed in Muhamalai on Thursday due to an explosion of an Improvised Explosive Device, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said. It said that two rebels were killed in Navathkulam in northern Vavuniya yesterday while two women Tigers were gunned down in Kallikulam.
At Periyapandisurichchan in Vavuniya, army snipers deployed in the defence line killed an LTTE cadre. On the Mannar front, troops stationed at Vannakulam came under heavy mortar shelling by LTTE cadres on Thursday evening resulting in the killing of two soldiers and injuries to two others, the Defence Ministry said.