Jayasikirui resumes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has launched a fresh attempt to capture the strategic Mankulam Junction this morningas part of its ongoing Operation Jayasikurui said SLA sources in Vavuniya.

Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopter gunships and Kfir jets launched several sorties in the direction of Mankulam this morning, said residents in the northern town of Vavuniya, 37 km north of Mankulam. The sounds of explosions could be heard from this morning, they added.

Further details of the fighting are not yet known.

An SLA officer who did not wish to be identified said yesterday that the troops were currently holding positions 1.5 km east of Mankulam and that he was certain that Mankulam would be captured in few days.

Sources in Vavuniya said the several hundred additional SLA troops have been sent to the Jayasikirui forward areas during the past few days.

Troops of 514 Brigade which was withdrawn from Allaipiddy, Mandatheevu and Mankumban, in the islands off the Jaffna peninsula, in the beginning of this month have also been deployed in the Vanni forward areas, they said.

Meanwhile, a transformer was blasted in a bomb explosion in Dehiwale, a suburb of Colombo this morning around 4 a.m. said Police sources in Colombo. Electricity supply to some parts of Dehiwale was disrupted due to the explosion.