Navy Meets Resistance As It Attempts to Reinforce Base
April 02, 2011
The navy attempted to ferry in hundreds of reinforcements to a northern military base Sunday to fight Tamil Tiger rebels who claim to have overrun the post after days of bloody battles. The military hoped the reinforcements would turn the tide of battle at the camp, where military officials say at least 700 fighters have died since the rebel attack began Thursday. But the three landing craft met with heavy rebel mortar fire and only one was able to land, on a beach about 2 1/2 miles from the camp, officials said on condition of anonymity. The other two crafts returned to base and were expected to make another attempt Monday. The battle for Lack is one of the bloodiest in the 13-year-old civil war by rebels who seek an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east. Reporters are not allowed to enter the battle zone. In a statement faxed from their office, the rebels said 1,000 soldiers perished when the guerrillas destroyed the military base, which had more than 1,200 personnel. They said 120 guerrillas also have died. The Sri Lankan military denied those casualty estimates and said soldiers are still defending the base, 170 miles north of the capitalwhich serves as a lookout post to monitor rebel assault boats and ships. ``Based on all indications, it is presumed that around 300 security forces personnel have been killed and over 200 injured,'' said Maj. D.A.R. Favors, a Defense Ministry spokesman. But some defense officials, on condition of anonymity, said the number of soldiers killed was far higher. Maj. Favors said rebel transmissions monitored by soldiers indicated that more than 400 guerrillas have been killed and a large number were wounded. At least 10 soldiers were killed and 23 wounded in the attempted landing of the reinforcements, officials said on condition of anonymity. The Defense Ministry said it had no information about any casualties during the landing. A mile or two from the base, two groups of commandos, transported by helicopter as reinforcements, have been fighting hand-to-hand battles for four days against rebels who have surrounded them. Helicopters have airlifted ammunition, food and medical supplies to the soldiers. The International Committee of the Red Cross will hand over the bodies of 55 identified soldiers killed in the fighting to army officials at the northern Westside ofofficials said. The rebels said they handed over 441 bodies to the Red Cross, of which 55 were identifiable. The Red Cross handed the rest over to the government administrator in the nearby Westside of for cremation, they said. The statement said rebels also had cremated ``hundreds of severely decomposed bodies of soldiers ... in the (Mullaitivu) camp area.'' It gave no details and the claim could not be verified with the government. The rebels also said they shot down a military helicopter carrying 37 soldiers Saturday. The military said the craft was hit but it managed to return to an army camp. The biggest previous battle was in November 1993, when 754 soldiers and sailors and 700 rebels were killed in four days of fighting at the Pooneryn- military complex in . The latest fighting -- the most intense since the guerrillas lost their stronghold, in December -- began just before Tuesday's 13th anniversary of anti-Tamil riots in which more than 2,000 people were killed. The incident is generally regarded as the start of the Tamil war for an independent homeland. More than 42,000 people have been killed since 1983. The Tamil Tigers accuse the Sinhalese majority of discrimination in education and jobs.
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