Mallavi Captured

The Sri Lanka Army today captured the strategic town of Mallavi killing around 25 Tigers in the process. Fierce fighting broke-out in the area yesterday as tigers made a last ditch effort to hold on. The Town of Mallavi was the most populated town south of Kilinochchi in the uncleared area.

Mallavi also has the largest government hospital in the area, which was ransacked by the Tigers. The hospital, schools and other buildings in the town were all captured and booby traps removed by the Army by this evening.

Remaining LTTE cadres in the area split into two groups, one traveling north on the A9 back to Kilinochchi and the other traveling east to reinforcing Mankulam which area the 57 Division will target next.

In the Weli Oya front, the LTTE withdrew from Kokkuthuduwai and Kokilai lagoon upto Nayaru. The FDL was withdrawn several kilometers to the north 4 days ago. The Army has now moved into the beach front and by today had captured 1km of the beach from the Tigers. The withdrawal was foreseen by Army Intelligence weeks ago after Tigers were struggling to man the area south of the lagoon due to an increasing shortage of men.

Meanwhile around 25 Tigers who escaped the Civil Defence Force attack at Konketiyawa had reached Trincomalee's Kadalana area by today, intelligence sources confirmed. These cadres, almost entirely easterners, have been trained specifically for deep penetration operations.

The LTTE's objective of strengthening its cadres in the East is to intensify disruptive attacks in the rear to the extent possible. The majority of the cadres deployed are from Batticaloa.

The unit ambushed by the CDF were withheld for many months before finally being sent to the East two days ago by Swarnam. Unfortunately for them, the team was detected and attacked in their first infiltration attempt.

LTTE is constantly attempting to infiltrate the east from the Weli Oya Sector where three FDLs have been established. These are 1. the coastal area from Pulmoddai, 2. Nayaru Lagoon and 3. Padaviya.

Army's intelligence units had previously wiped-out a large number of infiltrators from Trincomalee, including a team of around 15 cadres in Thambalagamuwa/Thampalakamam alone, thus forcing the LTTE to replenish its strength in the area. As intelligence operations improve, the recent batch of infiltrators too will be detected in due course, sources told DefenceWire.