Fighting starts again for Nagar Kovil MSR

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 October 2000, 11:05 GMT]
Fighting erupted again Sunday on Jaffna's southeastern cost after a brief lull as the Liberation Tigers launched a fresh attack from this morning to recapture a small segment of the Main Supply Route to the Sri Lanka army's Nagar Kovil detachment. The SLA Saturday retook some of its positions ahead of the detachment which the Liberation Tigers overran on 19 October.

Government troops also recaptured Saturday the segment of the detachment's MSR that was interdicted by the Tigers between Amban and Tharavai (the junction of the old coastal road from Pt.Pedro to Aaliyawalai where the road to the Nagar Kovil village branches off).

SLA sources denied that the interdiction of the old coastal road at this point critically affected supplies to this strategic coastal detachment. They said that a recently laid mud track from Amban to the Nagar Kovil village was adequate to keep the life line to the base open.

However, they added that if the Tigers had succeeded in landing troops on the coast north of the detachment and linked them up with their troops holding the small segment of the Nagar Kovil MSR between Amban and Tharavai, then the situation would have become serious.

The danger has been averted for now, according to Jaffna military headquarters sources.

SLA sources in Jaffna said that some bodies of LTTE troops defending this interdicted segment of the old coastal road were recovered after the fighting yesterday. They have been handed over to the Manthikai hospital.

The Tigers moved through the mangroves in this sector to interdict the MSR, SLA sources in Jaffna said. The mangroves to the west of the old coastal road between Amban and Tharavai give the Tigers direct access to the area held by them south of Eluthumadduval, they added.