FIVE SOLDIERS AND FOUR CIVILIANS DIE AFTER A LTTE AMBUSH
WHILE NAVY SINKS THREE SEA TIGER BOATS IN MANNAR

By Walter Jayawardhana

In Sri Lanka’s Northern Province , where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has increased their military activities after their defeats in the Eastern Province three Sea Tiger boats were sunk and a LTTE ambush killed five soldiers and four civilians .

The Sri Lanka Navy said it sank three Sea Tiger boats in the Mannar District off the North Western coast of Sri Lanka.

Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said when three patrol crafts engaged three Tiger vessels helicopter gunships came to help. He said four navy sailors received gun shot injuries in the battle. But their boats were intact ,the spokesman said.

Five army soldiers died when the Tamil Tigers ambushed their truck. In the ensuing gun battle between the soldiers and the LTTE gunmen four civilians were killed somewhere near Omanthai, North of Vavuniya.

According to police reports the civilians died caught between the cross fire.
Defense sources said the LTTE started firing their mortars from their makeshift gun positions in Mullikulam, Keerisuddan, and Periya Pandivirichchan areas from the early hours of Saturday. About 10 injured have been airlifted to the General Hospital Anuradhapura. The security forces are presently kept at high alert for a possible LTTE offensive.

Meanwhile reports from Eastern Province said, hundreds of Tamil refugees in a camp in the eastern district of Batticaloa had ransacked a convoy of food aid trucks heading for LTTE controlled territory.