04-09-2004, 11:21 PM
22 die in LTTE onslaught on Karuna group
BY P KARUNAKHARAN
DH NEWS SERVICE, COLOMBO:
At least 22 cadres were killed and several injured when armed cadres of the Tamil Tiger rebels launched a pre-dawn military onslaught to retake vast stretch of areas under renegade rebel Colonel Karunas control in the Eastern Batticaloa district. The fighting erupted shortly after Thursday midnight on the Verugal river banks when Karunas loyalists fired on the LTTE cadres who tried to infiltrate into the rebel leaders areas. Both sides have used long range guns and mortars to defend their positions.
Succeeding in punching a hole in Karuna's Forward Defence Lines (FDLs), the elite fighting formations of the LTTE leadership have advanced into Vakarai, where Karuna's operational headquarters with command and communication infrastructure is located. Pro-LTTE Tamilnet website quoting the residents of the area reported that the infantry formations of the LTTE, spearheaded by crack commando units of the LTTE, backed by heavy artillery fire, were now consolidating their positions in Paatchenai, about 6 km north of Vakarai, having crossed the Verugal river before dawn.
More than three hundred young fighters of the Karuna group who were defending the southern side of the river and the interior surrendered without fight, the Tamilnet quoted an LTTE commander who led one of the advance teams that crossed the Verugal River as saying. Several heavy mortars too were surrendered.
A large sea side base of the Karuna Group in Kathiraveli, about 12 kilometres north of Vakarai, has also fallen into the hands of the advancing LTTE units without much resistance.
According to a PTI report, the rebels belonging to the Karuna faction were forced to pull back from key points in eastern Sri Lanka as fighting intensified. Fighters belonging to V Muralitharan, better kno-wn as Karuna, the defector who left the main Tamil Tiger group in March, were retreating as the fighting grew worse and some 4,000 civilians began fleeing the east.
BY P KARUNAKHARAN
DH NEWS SERVICE, COLOMBO:
At least 22 cadres were killed and several injured when armed cadres of the Tamil Tiger rebels launched a pre-dawn military onslaught to retake vast stretch of areas under renegade rebel Colonel Karunas control in the Eastern Batticaloa district. The fighting erupted shortly after Thursday midnight on the Verugal river banks when Karunas loyalists fired on the LTTE cadres who tried to infiltrate into the rebel leaders areas. Both sides have used long range guns and mortars to defend their positions.
Succeeding in punching a hole in Karuna's Forward Defence Lines (FDLs), the elite fighting formations of the LTTE leadership have advanced into Vakarai, where Karuna's operational headquarters with command and communication infrastructure is located. Pro-LTTE Tamilnet website quoting the residents of the area reported that the infantry formations of the LTTE, spearheaded by crack commando units of the LTTE, backed by heavy artillery fire, were now consolidating their positions in Paatchenai, about 6 km north of Vakarai, having crossed the Verugal river before dawn.
More than three hundred young fighters of the Karuna group who were defending the southern side of the river and the interior surrendered without fight, the Tamilnet quoted an LTTE commander who led one of the advance teams that crossed the Verugal River as saying. Several heavy mortars too were surrendered.
A large sea side base of the Karuna Group in Kathiraveli, about 12 kilometres north of Vakarai, has also fallen into the hands of the advancing LTTE units without much resistance.
According to a PTI report, the rebels belonging to the Karuna faction were forced to pull back from key points in eastern Sri Lanka as fighting intensified. Fighters belonging to V Muralitharan, better kno-wn as Karuna, the defector who left the main Tamil Tiger group in March, were retreating as the fighting grew worse and some 4,000 civilians began fleeing the east.
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