2ND LEAD (UPDATE)

42 SLA killed in two days, heavy fighting in Mannaar - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 June 2008, 07:57 GMT]
At least 42 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and 76 wounded Within the past 48 hours at two fighting fronts in Mannaar, Tiger officials cited LTTE Operations Command in Mannaar as saying. On Monday, 22 SLA soldiers were killed when the SLA launched a ground movement at 5:30 a.m. at Aalangku'lam towards Vaddakka'ndal, the Tigers said. The SLA move was thwarted at 10:00 a.m. Meanwhile, at Periyamadu the SLA opened a ground operation on four fronts on Sunday. The SLA was defeated at 2 of the fronts. Meanwhile, the SLA said it had recovered three dead bodies of LTTE fighters and handed over the bodies to Murungkan police on Monday.

The SLA blocked the Mannaar - Vangkaalai road frequently on Monday, sources in Mannaar said. The SLAF helicopter launchpad in Vangkaalai was used to transport the wounded soldiers to military hospitals. Eight of the wounded soldiers were also admitted at the civil hospital in Mannaar, according to the medical sources at Mannaar hospital.

At least 20 of the 40 wounded SLA soldiers on Monday had sustained serious injuries, LTTE officials told reporters in Vanni.

20 SLA soldiers were killed and 36 wounded in Mannaar on Sunday, the Tigers said.

Meanwhile the SLA has handed over 3 dead bodies of females to Murungkan police claiming that the bodies belong to LTTE fighters killed at Aalangku'lam near Adampan. Mannaar district magistrate T. J. Prabhakaran inspected the bodies at 3:45 p.m. and ordered the police to handover the bodies for postmortem to Mannaar hospital and to cooperate with the ICRC if it was approached to facilitate transportation of the combatants killed in action.