Heavy fighting as Mallavi comes under siege

"The army lost 20 men, five went missing, the bodies of three of whom were captured by the tigers. The LTTE went away with at least 20 dead in its own ranks and 30 wounded, all from the three 'elite' units. LTTE leader Banu was heard advising his troops to make maximum effort to capture at least a few SLA bodies."
___________

by DefenecWire

(August 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Heavy fighting erupted yesterday between the Army's 57 Division and the LTTE's Charles Anthony, Imran Pandian and Intelligence Wing cadres south of Mallavi. Fighting erupted as the LTTE's cream made a counter-attack on regular troops of the Army after the 57 Division captured an area of around 900km2 in one day.

The army lost 20 men, five went missing, the bodies of three of whom were captured by the tigers. The LTTE went away with at least 20 dead in its own ranks and 30 wounded, all from the three 'elite' units. LTTE leader Banu was heard advising his troops to make maximum effort to capture at least a few SLA bodies.


The Tigers managed this goal by ambushing Army casualties. As the fighting raged on, the Army dispatched a jeep to bring back the injured. A tiger ambush team fired an RPG at the Jeep, thus killing 3 soldiers, including the driver and two casualties being rushed to hospital.

A few days ago, a SLA LRRP team was detected in the area just south of Kilinochchi at Kokavil by a group of LTTE civilian force members who called in reinforcements. The team of six special Forces fought valiantly losing two men in the process. Finally, a chopper full of Special Forces was brought in, who decimated the LTTE attack and rescued 4 men and one body. The other body was captured by the Tigers.

Last Wednesday, three Special Forces teams lay in ambush along the Vellankulam-Mallavi road waiting for a group of Charles Anthony cadres to arrive. The first team ambushed a team of Charles Anthony unit cadres as they came along the road. The Tigers rushed in a second team of Charles Anthony, which was also ambushed by the 2nd SF team. In desperation, Tigers sent in a 3rd team, which to their horror was ambushed by the 3rd team lying in waiting. Altogether a total of 24 Charles Anthony unit cadres were killed in the attack.

In the meantime, the Army's 58 Division (Task Force-1) captured the strategic village of Vellankulam. The SLA's next direction of operations remains to be seen.
- Sri Lanka Guardian