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Lanka army camp attacked, hundreds feared dead

Dexter Cruez in Colombo

Hundreds of Sri Lankan troops may have been killed when Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels overran a camp, a senior military official said today, in an attack that could hurt President Chandrika Kumaratunga's re-election hopes.

''Our losses are not as much as we expected, but it could be in the hundreds,'' a senior military official told Reuters today.

The official said a clearer picture would emerge later today as troops regroup following the attack at Oddusuddan early yesterday.

The attack on Oddusuddan, the last military outpost on the eastern side of the northern Wanni region that was captured in December, could be the army's worst setback in the past year.

It also came barely two months before Kumaratunga goes to the polls. She is seeking re-election on a mandate to end the fighting and find a political solution to the long-running ethnic conflict that has claimed at least 55,000 lives since 1983.

The Tamil Tigers said hundreds died in the latest attack in the country's violent north.

''Hundreds of Sri Lankan troops have been killed and several hundred injured as the fighting units of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam overran the Sri Lankan military complex at Oddusuddan,'' the rebels said in a statement faxed from their London office.

It said the rebels had taken control of the strategically important town and its surrounding areas.

Oddusuddan, about 280 kilometres north-east of Colombo, lies on the highway that links the north-eastern coastal town of Mullaitivu with the rest of the mainland. Mullaitivu is the main base of the LTTE, which is fighting to establish a Tamil homeland in the country's north and east.

A defence ministry statement yesterday said the Sri Lanka air force had launched air strikes on ''isolated enemy pockets causing heavy losses to the LTTE'' after the rebels launched the attack on Oddusuddan town.

''It was clearly evident that the attack was launched in desperation to prevent any further advance by the security forces on the LTTE strongholds in Mullaitivu and Puthukudirippu,'' the statement said.

''Security forces as well as the LTTE used heavy artillery during the confrontations. Security forces launched several counter-attacks and recaptured certain areas,'' the military statement added.

No independent confirmation of the rebel attack or military action was possible because the government does not allow journalists access to the frontline unless taken on military conducted tours.

Reuters

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