COLOMBO (PTI): LTTE militants attacked and killed 15 Sri Lankan soldiers in cross-firing 12 km north-east of northern Vavuniya district in the island nation August4, the military said. With Tuesday’s attack, the Tamil militants have killed 29 soldiers during the past 24 hours in strife torn north-eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.
A patrol sent out from Pirappanmaduwa detachment to provide security to farmers in their fields was attacked by a large group of militants who also launched a Simultaneous attack on the Pirappanmaduwa detachment. Cross-firing lasted nearly an hour leaving at least 15 soldiers dead.
Soldiers in the detachment repulsed the attack killing at least 10 militants. A spokesman of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said their exact number could not be known. Meanwhile, Colombo newspapers said Lankan troops killed41 armed cadres of the LTTE in three places in Eastern Batticalo a district.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 14, 1992
