SLA captures Oddusuddan

[TamilNet, Friday, 04 December 1998, 12:24 GMT]
Sri Lankan Government troops engaged in the Operation Jeyasikurui have captured Oddusuddan, 22 km. east of Mankulam on the Mankulam-Mullaithivu road Thursday and linked up with troops from Nedunkerni said SLA sources.

Nedunkerni is 16 km south of Oddusuddan and was brought under SLA's control in May-June 1997 during the first phase of operation Jeyasikurui.

Troops from Nedunkerni moved north along the road to link up with troops that had advanced east from their positions around Karipattamurippu, they said.

SLA sources said that the LTTE offered little resistance to its advancing troops and hence only 10 soldiers were wounded in the operation.

About 500 civilians were in the Oddusuddan area when the troops moved in the sources added.

Meanwhile, the Voice of Tigers radio (VoT) said that over 11,500 people from 10 Grama Sevakas (Village Headman) divisions were displaced when the SLA moved into the Oddussudan area.

Schools and other public buildings in Puthukudiyeruppu area, a distance of about 15 km. from Oddusuddan are full of the displaced people said the radio.

Many people have sought refuge on the roadside and under the trees in the pouring rains the radio said further.

According to the radio, an airstrike by Kfir jets of the Sri Lankn Air Force (SLAF) this morning at Muththayankaddu in the Mullaithivu district killed an elderly civilian who was fleeing to safety.

A rice mill near the Muththayankaddu government school was completely destroyed in the bombing, the radio added.