Tigers beef up strength on coast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 March 2000, 18:20 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers who are currently based in Maamunai on Jaffna's southeastern coast said the large number of their special units that have been transported by sea from the Vanni will continue to mount the attack on the Thalaiyadi base and its forward positions in Vaththirayan.

The LTTE raised the Tiger flag in the overrun Maamunai camp and one of its satellite detachments by the coast today said the TamilNet correspondent who visited the area this morning.

He said that there were about twelve bodies of Sri Lanka army soldiers strewn by the destroyed Sri Lanka army base in Maamunai. About twenty soldiers who had escaped the camp's fall were killed when the bus in which they had attempted to drive out of the war zone was attacked by the Tigers he said.

More than a thousand five hundred Tigers, mostly female fighters, have moved into the general area of Maamunai by sea today according to him.

Israeli built Kfir jets of the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed hamlets ahead of Thalaiyadi around 9 a.m. this morning. Six houses belonging to civilians in Sembiyan Pattu were damaged in the Kfir attacks today, the TamilNet's Vadamaradchi east correspondent said.

More than two thousand people have come through the SLA's check point at Nagar Kovil to escape the fighting and seek refuge in Pt.Pedro said the TamilNet's Vadamaradchi east correspondent this afternoon.

Tigers are operating from a hamlet close to the A9, the main highway from Jaffna to the rest of the island between Eluthuhmaddvaal and Pallai sources said. A senior SLA commander claimed that the operation to bring a section of the MSR to Elephant Pass, the A9 highway, into the army's control is still underway.

The Voice of Tigers in its night news broadcast said that eleven of its troopers including three holding the rank of Lieutenant who where involved in the latest phase of Operation Unceasing Waves were killed in action.



Meanwhile an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) of the Sri Lanka Air Force was severely damaged when it made a crash landing due to engine failure at Palaly today.