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PRESS RELEASE
LTTE Headquarters
LTTE FORCES ADVANCE FURTHER INTO VANNI: Heavy fighting continued in the border areas of Vanni as the advancing columns of LTTE forces made further thrusts today into the northeastern sector of Manal Aru (Weli Oya) and regained vast tracts of Tamil territory from the occupying Sri Lankan army. Sri Lankan troops fled in disarray as the LTTE commando units stormed well-fortified military camps in the Manal Aru area and brought the territory under their control. 'Thanikallu' and 'Ceylon Theatre' military camps -which functioned as a protective armor for the Sinhala colonisation of Tamil villages in the region - fell to the LTTE after several hours of heavy artillery and mortar engagement between Tamil Tigers and Sinhala troops. In the central sector, along the A9 highway, the LTTE fighting units made further advance from Pulliyankulam and captured Pannikaneeravi, a strategic junction between Pulliyankulam and Omanthai. Both the parties in conflict, the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan army, have been engaged in a ferocious artillery duel in the area for the last 24 hours. Heavy fighting has also flared in the Pallamadu and Palampity areas along the western sector of Mannar where LTTE fighting units are making a sustained effort to liberate the area from the occupying army. Over one thousand Sri Lankan troops have been killed and double that number injured in the continuing campaign by the LTTE code-named 'Unceasing Waves 3'. 119 LTTE cadres, including 43 women fighters, have died so far in the ongoing offensive operations. In the meantime the Sri Lankan military establishment is dismantling several army camps in the Trincomalee and Batticoloa districts in a desperate effort to reinforce troops, in the bordering regions of Vanni, to halt the rapid advance of the LTTE. (Released by the International Secretariat of LTTE, 211 Katherine Rd, |