Heavy casualties at Paranthan - SLA

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Army claimed today that they had recaptured the Paranthan Base which came under three pronged assault by the Liberation Tigers, from 1.30 a.m. in the early hours of the morning today.

The SLA said that its troops had consolidated their positions in the base by late morning.

SLA claimed it had recovered bodies of the 218 members of the LTTE in the 54-1 Brigade area in Paranthan.

Large numbers of Liberation Tigers had simultaneously overrun the eastern, southern and western forward defence lines (FDL) of the Paranthan base, which is situated between sprawling Elephant Pass Base and the Killinochchi Base, in the first phase of the attack.

Unconfirmed reports from Vavuniya said that more than 200 wounded SLA troops had been brought to the Anuradhapuram hospital.

However, a MoD communiqué released this afternoon said that 19 SLA soldiers were killed and 86 wounded.