Sri Lanka lost 185 soldiers in Jaffna battle: military sources
COLOMBO (AFP) — At least 165 soldiers were killed and 20 more went missing in a major battle with Tamil separatists this week, military sources told AFP on Friday as journalists complained of unofficial censorship.
With reports of higher casualties emerging -- making Wednesday's clash the bloodiest in recent years -- the authorities extended "unofficial" censorship to hospitals and funeral parlours where photographers and reporters were shut out, a media rights group said.
The death toll from the sources were far higher than official defence ministry casualty figures, which gave 43 soldiers dead and 38 missing from Wednesday's fighting in the northern peninsula of Jaffna.
"Some of the senior officers have been told that the army lost 185, including 20 who are still listed as missing," said a military source who declined to be named. "We are trying to establish the fate of the missing."
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Thursday returned via the international Red Cross the bodies of 28 soldiers they had captured.
The government also reported killing more than 100 rebels and wounding 100 more in the pre-dawn offensive along the Muhamalai front lines on the peninsula.
The Tigers said only 25 of its fighters were killed.
Official defence ministry casualties reports and LTTE figures can seldom be verified because the government prevents journalists from visiting war zones and territory held by the rebels.
The ministry claims 3,105 rebels have been killed already this year -- more than intelligence estimates of the number of LTTE fighters, which was put at 3,000.
Wednesday's confrontation was by far the biggest battle since Colombo withdrew from a Norwegian-arranged truce in January.
The Free Media Movement (FMM) said the authorities had prevented photographers taking pictures of military casualties moved to hospitals in the aftermath of the fighting.
Soldiers also provided tight security at undertakers to block the media.
"It is highly likely that these measures have been taken after heavy losses faced by the Sri Lankan army earlier this week after fighting intensified in the north," the FMM said in a statement.
The group said it was urging the government as well as the LTTE to respect the right to information.
"The FMM believes that the right of the public to know information and news relating to the ongoing war is severely undermined by the restrictions placed on journalists."
It said only foreign wire services and a few news websites operating from Colombo reported battlefront casualties independent of government press releases.
Despite the heavy losses in Jaffna, troops made a fresh push into rebel-held territory in the north and captured the Catholic pilgrim town of Madhu, where a venerated shrine is located, the military said Friday.
"Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Light Infantry reached the shrine as the terrorists beat a retreat unable to withstand the army advance," the defence ministry said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, but the rebels had accused the army of launching artillery attacks in the area.
The church, in the coastal Mannar district, has in the past provided a sanctuary for thousands of civilians sheltering from crossfire, the ministry said.
It accused the LTTE of turning the shrine into "a terror base by positioning its heavy guns around the church and using it as a barrack for its cadres" since they took control of the area in 1999.
But there were no reports of casualties from Madhu.
The LTTE have been fighting to carve out an independent homeland for Tamils since 1972. Tens of thousands have died on both sides in the conflict.
