Twelve SLA wounded in attack and own fire

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 June 2001, 16:53 GMT]
Six Sri Lanka army soldiers who were lying in ambush were wounded in Sector Eight on the Vavuniya-Mannar highway when the Liberation Tigers attacked them late Friday night around 11.40 a.m. military sources said. Six troopers of an SLA ambush party were injured when an SLA road clearing patrol opened fire them, mistaking them for Liberation Tigers, in the general area of Kalmadu, west of the A9 junction at Thaandikkulam near Vavuniya town Friday morning around 6 a.m.

The highway to Mannar is now held mostly by military trained Sri Lankan Police units armed with Rocket propelled grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, mortars etc.,

The elite Special Task Force commandos are also deployed in limited numbers on the highway with the Police.

However, regular units of the Sri Lanka army still conduct ambush and patrolling ahead of the forward defence along the highway.