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Government troops have brought under control intense face-to-face fighting with Tamil Tiger terrorists, reducing the terrorist attack to a series of sporadic exchanges of artillery and mortar fire, defense officials said today. Meanwhile, LTTE terrorists are preparing for fresh rounds of consolidation by security forces in the Jaffna peninsula in the wake of their latest unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the army from its key Elephant Pass base. The terrorist launched their attack on Monday, after weeks of heavy cadre build-up south of Elephant Pass. The LTTE have been singularly unable to break the SLA stranglehold on Elephant Pass in 17 years of fighting, despite an intense 6-week campaign against the base late last year. A defence ministry official today said there were no reports of renewed attempts to dislodge military positions, despite occasional long-range attacks overnight. “Their gains have been minimal at best. In the Wanni, they were able to press their advantage. Here, they have gained no advantage at all, so they’re winding down the attack,” the official said. Official sources put army losses at 65 soldiers killed and 421 wounded, most with minor injuries, and estimated terrorist losses at least 100 killed. A defense ministry release yesterday acknowledged making a tactical withdrawal of one unit. "Considering the ground situation, troops deployed in Maruthankerni area were tactically withdrawn to south west of the lagoon and consolidated along the lagoon front," the defence ministry said Wednesday. The defence ministry said the navy and the airforce were deployed to beat back attempts by the LTTE to land boats in the peninsula for fresh attacks against military bases which have been under fire since Monday. The ministry said air force jets had destroyed three rebel vehicles carrying reinforcements and sunk several rebel boats. According local residents, at least five civilians have been killed and 30 wounded after they were trapped by the terrorists launching their multi-pronged assault. A Defence Ministry communiqué said that the security forces withdrew from Manmunai and the detachment there was pulled back as a tactical move to an alternative position on the instructions of the Security Forces Commander. Three artillery guns at the Manmunai detachment were damaged due to heavy terrorist fire and they were pulled back to the Palaly camp.
"Troops were able to
completely destroy the tank used by the terrorists to attack the
detachment," a military spokesman said.
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