Tigers interdict Kilali supply route

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 September 2000, 16:23 GMT]
The supply route to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Sri Lanka Navy base at Kilali from Eluthumadduval is unusable due to the fighting in the area sources in Jaffna said Thursday night. A Sri Lanka army official in Jaffna, however, said that Kilali is now linked to the A9 highway by an alternative road from Mirusuvil; and that the army and the SLN's Special Boat Squadron (SBS) are resisting assaults by the troops of the Liberation Tigers on their positions at Kilali.

He said that 118 soldiers were killed and 412 were wounded in the P-1, P-2 categories, meaning that the condition of the majority was serious.

Meanwhile, the TamilNet correspondent in Vadamaradchi east said that civilians attempting to leave the village of Amban, north of the SLA base in Nagar Kovil, were turned back by troops Thursday. He said that the LTTE and the SLA in Nagar Kovil continued to trade artillery fire through the day.

The SLA camp on the road between Eluthumadduval and Nagar Kovil has been isolated by LTTE troops that overwhelmed most of the army positions along this supply route sources said. But the military in Jaffna claimed that the coastal road from Pt.Pedro to the Nagar Kovil is open for supplies to the coastal garrison.

Sources in Amban said that the army camp on the road linking Nagar Kovil and Eluthumadduval is under heavy attack by LTTE troops that have advanced into the southern environs of this supply route.