MULLAITTIVU: AS the clock struck 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday (21), valiant troops moving past the PUTHUMATTALAN junction in the ‘No Fire Zone’ (NFZ) further extended their defence line to the eastern edge of the beach virtually breaking the NFZ into two major portions. 

     It thus marked the complete capture of a box-type strip in the northern PUTHUMATHALAN area including the hospital.

     Two LTTE cabs, scurrying along the road beyond the perimeter of the dominated NFZ area were accurately targeted and subsequently destroyed by Army troops. It is believed one of the former LTTE leaders for BATTICALOA, named RAMANAN had reportedly been in one of those cabs.  Unconfirmed reports said the Army fire has killed RAMANAN in the incident. Hospitals buildings used by the LTTE to treat remaining injured terrorists also fell to the Army hands as clearing expanded later on. 

     Troops have collected twenty-two dead bodies of the terrorists from the NFZ after their entry and an LTTE motor grader at the time this report was pasted at about 6.00 p.m. (local time).