PRESS RELEASE
LTTE Headquarters
Tamil Eelam
15 December 1999
HEAVY FIGHTING CONTINUES IN THE PENINSULA
LTTE CONSOLIDATES CAPTURED POSITIONS
The offensive campaign of the Tamil Tigers to liberate the Jaffna Peninsula
continued today for the fifth day with intense artillery shelling on Sri Lanka
army positions in Thenmarachi, Vadamarachi and along the coastal region of the
Jaffna town.
The LTTE fighting units, which overran the strategic military bases at
Vettilaikerni, Kaddaikadu, Pullaveli and Marathankerni in the northeastern
sector of Elephant Pass, have been consolidating their positions and advancing
further into the eastern coastal belt of Vadamarachi. Heavy exchange of
artillery and mortar bombardment continued in the area as the LTTE commando
units slowly and systematically tightened their grip around the Elephant Pass
military complex. Threatened by the encirclement of the Elephant Pass base
complex, the Sri Lankan navy and airforce have been continuously pounding the
coastal areas that have fallen to Tamil Tigers.
In the meantime, the Sri Lankan government has unleashed a mischievous
propaganda war against the LTTE's offensive campaign claiming exaggerated
casualty figures on the Tigers. The reports emanating from the Defence Ministry
sources that over 500 LTTE cadres have been killed are baseless and fictitious.
Operating under the cover of a rigorous censorship, the government has been
distorting the actuality of the ground situation to deceive its own populace and
the world in general. So far sixty of our cadres have been killed during the
last five days.
(Released by the International Secretariat of LTTE, 211 Katherine Rd,
London E6 1BU, United Kingdom. Tel : 44 20 8503 4294)
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