LTTE hands over 12 bodies of Lankan soldiers

Colombo, July 15: The LTTE today handed over the bodies of twelve Lankan soldiers killed in a fierce gun-battle yesterday to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), officials here said.

''We were present while the LTTE handed over the 12 bodies to the ICRC at the Black Bridge in Batticaloa district,'' Spokesman of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Thorfinnur Omarsson told UNI over the phone.

This is for the first time since the ceasefire agreement was signed on February 2002 that Tamil Tigers and the government troops engaged in direct confrontation of this nature.

The Lankan military yesterday said 13 of its men were missing and four were wounded after an hour-long gun-battle with the LTTE.

UNI

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