The Sri Lankan military continued to search the recently captured eastern Thoppigala and nearby areas on Sunday for fleeing Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said.
Army troops launched an attack on a group of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels early morning on Sunday, recovering rifles, mines, grenades and some other items, said a statement of the Media Center for National Security.
Defense officials said the Army is looking for two LTTE leaders named Ganesh and Jeyam who have been stranded after the troops took over Thoppigala on Wednesday.
Thoppigala, the last bastion of the LTTE in Eastern Province, fell to government troops after the falling of Sampur and Vakarai, another two LTTE strongholds of the rebel group in the province.
The rebels admitted to their defeat but warned that they are likely to resort to attacking military and economic targets.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that the LTTE on Sunday handed over to them four bodies of soldiers killed in Saturday's clash in the northern Vavuniya district.
The LTTE said that they had repulsed a military movement from their forward defense lines while the military claimed that a rebel artillery and mortar fire was successfully thwarted by them.
Scores of government soldiers were killed and injured in the battle which erupted Saturday morning.
Clashes in the island's Northern and Eastern provinces since the end of 2005 have so far cost over 5000 lives. The Norwegian backed truce agreement signed in 2002 between the two sides remain only on paper.
Despite regular armed confrontations the two sides are yet to officially withdraw from the ceasefire.
Source: Xinhua
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