COLOMBO, 10 March 2007 — Sri Lankan troops captured four Tamil Tiger bases and inflicted heavy casualties in the northeast before dawn yesterday, the military said, pushing on with an offensive the rebels warn could end in a bloodbath.
Ground troops backed by artillery and multibarrel rocket launchers advanced on Thursday night on rebel-held territory in the district of Trincomalee, killing at least 20 Tiger fighters, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.
In a separate incident, suspected Tigers ambushed an armored personnel carrier with a roadside bomb in the eastern district of Batticaloa, killing three police commandos and wounding 13. A senior military officer, a park warden and six others were feared killed in a rebel attack in a wildlife reserve in the northwestern district of Mannar after witnesses reported seeing slain bodies in the distance.
“We have cleared three major bases and (a satellite base). The Tigers fled the area when we fired artillery and multibarrel rocket launchers,” Samarasinghe said.
“We have cleared the area because (the Tigers) were a threat to the villages and the camps close by,” he added. “According to ground troops, there are a large number of Tiger bodies being collected, at least 20.”
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said it had abandoned jungle camps in the area. “We have been operating in that area for more than 24 years. In Trincomalee jungles there are hundreds and hundreds of old camps. They are old, abandoned bases,” Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone.
