Karuna attacks Prabhakaran's forces

Col. Karuna fights back, inflicting higher casualties on the enemy, reports PK Balachanddran.

The rebel LTTE Eastern Commander Col. Karuna, who fell back from the Verugal river on Friday morning because of the surprise attack by forces loyal to the LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, counter-attacked in the afternoon, pushing the invader back towards the Verugal river, according to a pro-Karuna website, Tamil News Web.

HT Image

Informed military sources confirmed that Karuna was fighting back, inflicting higher casualties on the enemy. The invading group under Col. Sornam had lost 38 men lives while Karuna lost 22. The sources debunked the claim that 300 of Karuna's kid soldiers had surrendered to Prabhakaran's troops.

The sources, quoting Sri Lankan army radio intercepts, also denied that Jeyam, Commander of Karuna's troops in Vaharai, was wounded in an attack.

"The man who tried to kill Jeyam was caught and publicly executed in Vaharai," the sources said.

The Tamil News Web said that groups of civilians loyal to Karuna were rounding up persons suspected to be infiltrators.

The fighting between Karuna and Prabhakaran was causing much dismay among the people of Batticalao district, resident told Hindustan Times over the phone. "There is a climate of fear. Nobody is safe here," said a resident.

Meanwhile, the Tamil News Web said that the Bishop of Trincomalee and
Batticaloa, Rev. Kingsley Swampillai, was trying to bring an end to the
bloodshed. A group calling itself "Non-Violent Peace Group" has appealed to both sides to release kid soldiers. These kid soldiers were the manifestation of the "barbaric" nature of the Tamil militant movement, it said.