12:27 PM

52 LTTE killed

Jaffna theatre of battle heated up since early this morning (April 23), as Sri Lanka army 55 and 53 divisions put- on stiff resistance to an LTTE embarked fresh offensives at the Army forwards defences on the Muhamalai and Kilaly frontiers. According to the defence sources in Jaffna heavy fighting broke out between troops and LTTE since 2 am this morning, as troops mounted retaliatory attacks at the offensive LTTE formations.

According to latest information LTTE suffered severe beating and were pushed some 500m back from its initial positions. Seizing the opportunity SLA broke the LTTE's first line of defence in the Muhamalai front, and are now engaged in consolidating the defence lines, security sources said.

So far, 15 soldiers have laid their lives while 74 suffered injuries and some of them have been air lifted to Colombo national hospital.

6:07 AM

Euro TV moves to Israel

The Tamil Tigers started test transmissions of its Euro television channel from Israel using the RR Sat of Tel Aviv for uplink facility. This move came after its earlier attempts to revive the Euro TV from Italy and France failed due to timely action taken by Sri Lankan embassies in Rome and Paris respectively.

It is apparent that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a proscribed organization in the European Union and the United States had used a front organization to mislead the Israeli authorities. Diplomatic sources expressed confidence that Israel would not have granted uplink facility to the Euro TV if they had known that it was the television channel of the LTTE which is banned in United States, the powerful ally of Tel Aviv. “Israel would not have allowed it after it was closed down by Italy if they knew the connection,” a diplomat said. “I am sure that Israel would also close down this channel when they realize the LTTE connection.”