By P. Karunakharan, IANS
Colombo, May 30 (IANS) Sri Lanka Friday claimed that its fighter jets have bombed “artillery and mortar launching platforms” of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Kalmunai point in the northern district of Jaffna.
“Two separate sorties were launched around 12 noon and 1.20 p.m. The targets were accurately hit, but the exact damages to the enemy are yet to be ascertained,” the defence ministry said.
The ministry said, “The LTTE rebels used the targeted locations to launch artillery attacks on Tamil villages in the peninsula Thursday that killed six civilians including two children and left 20 others wounded.”
The air raids came exactly a day after the pre-dawn sea-borne attack by the Tamil rebels on a naval detachment in an islet in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
The defence ministry in a separate report claimed that at least 21 LTTE cadres were killed and 11 others wounded in clashes in the Jaffna and the Wanni battlefronts Thursday.
It also said that the troops manning the forward defences in the northeastern Weli-Oya moved forward and “captured the LTTE’s main logistic base known as ‘Munnagam Base’ located 6 km north of Janakapura Thursday evening”.
There was no immediate word from the LTTE in this regard.