Army advances 1.5 kilometres into LTTE held territory in Batticaloa

The security forces have been mounting attacks since this morning on LTTE controlled Panichchankarni and Vakarai in Batticaloa. The government said these attacks were in response to an LTTE attack on the Mankarni camp's forward defence lines.Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe told 'Lanka e News' air strikes and artillery fire had killed 22 LTTE cadres.The Panichchan LTTE camp had been totally destroyed in the retaliatory attacks and the troops had observed scattered bodies and abandoned firearms, Brigadier Samarasinghe added.The two sides have been exchanging fire from 4.14 this morning until this afternoon. The army said two soldiers were injured.

Meanwhile LTTE sources said the Army had launched an offensive from the Mankarni camp to capture LTTE controlled areas adding that Tamil civilians who flocked to Vakarai from 23 villages due to recent clashes had been further inconvenienced as a result.Troops had advanced 1.5 kilometres into LTTE held areas, LTTE military spokesman Ilandcherian said and he had appealed to Monitoring Mission to visit the area. He claimed that the LTTE's war council had met to assess the situation.Meanwhile Govt.'s media center said, LTTE, withdrawing towards Wakarei after a heavy beating from troops at Mankerni blasted the Panichchankarni bridge, the only passage which civilians had to cross over to Wakarei. According to ground sources, over 25,000 civilians used this bridge to go across to Wakarei. Military officials say that the tigers would have blasted the bridge to block troops entering Panichchankarni.