Over 350 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and more than 400 Sinhala troopers were injured when the LTTE counter attacked the advancing 57th Division last Monday and Tuesday in Vannerikkulam.

   According to information received by Theepori, LTTE carried out a surprise counter attack when soldiers of the 57th Division, in preparation for further advance into tiger territory, formed into several platoons and spread out in readiness for the forward move. LTTE cadres were easily able to cut off these Sri Lankan army platoons and engaged them in close quarter fighting causing heavy casualties.

   LTTE too suffered heavy losses. Over 60 LTTE cadres were killed and more than 100 were injured.

   Most of the dead Sri Lankan soldiers came from President Mahinda Rajapakse's Hambantota district and the relatives of the dead Sinhala soldiers have reportedly reacted angrily to the news of the heavy losses.

   Sri Lankan military authorities have hushed up the heavy losses suffered by the Sinhala soldiers. Following these heavy losses and in order to prevent news of the heavy defeat reaching other soldiers, all communications to soldiers below the rank of Major were cut off for three days on the instructions of the Army Commander.

   Army Commander also instructed the hospital authorities not to admit relatives of deceased and injured soldiers to the hospitals.

   Theepori sources say that LTTE deployed mostly newly trained young cadres and having defeated the enemy these young LTTE cadres quickly withdrew to their positions without even taking count of the dead enemy soldiers. Sri Lankan Army were able to remove the bodies of most of the dead soldiers and was thus able to hide the extent of the actual losses. The Sri Lankan media faithfully reported the casualty figures provided by the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry and the Sri Lankan military authorities were thus able to prevent the news about the heavy defeat reaching the public.

   Even Tamilnet gave the number of Sri Lankan soldiers dead as 85 and said a further 280 wered injured.

   Sri Lankan Army has now suspended its military move into tiger territory following heavy casualties suffered by its elite 57th Division. Sri Lankan Air Force has however continued to carry out bombing operations on targets in the Wanni.