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Army on Kilinochchi’s outer perimeter, says Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Amid pitched battles between the military and LTTE in the Muhamalai sector in the Jaffna Peninsula, the Air Force bombed ‘identified LTTE targets’ on Sunday.

After the capture of Ponneryn, the LTTE’s last strategic sea base on the western coast of the Indian Ocean, the military is targeting LTTE bases in Muhamalai, which are used to mount attacks on soldiers in the Jaffna Peninsula.

The capture of Ponneryn will enable the military to strike at the LTTE administrative capital, Kilinochchi, from three sides. A Defence Ministry statement said here “an offensive element” of the 57th Division, operating south of the Akkarayankulama-Terumurikkandy Road, has reached the outer perimeters of Kokavil in Kilinochchi district.

The Air Force claimed to have carried out successive airstrikes at the LTTE’s forward defence line in Muhamalai. The raid was conducted to assist the ground troops, said Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara.

The military also claimed that 11 civilians from the non-liberated Paranthan area, Kilinochchi, sought protection of the security forces at Poonar in Ponneryn on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the government condemned the killing of TMVP members, including the coordinating secretary to the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province.

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