The army has deployed elite troops in the East to neutralise LTTE units engaged in hit and run tactics in the wake of a series of attacks in the East, particularly targeting the breakaway LTTE faction and police.

Army headquarters said that commandos had zeroed-in-on a group of LTTE cadres operating in the Bakmitiyawa jungles Monday morning killing four.

"We recovered their bodies along with four T 56 assault rifles," an army spokesman told The Island last night.

On Tuesday the bodies of eleven LTTE cadres, including seven women killed in confrontations east of Mankulam over the past two days, were handed over to ICRC representatives to be moved across the frontline and handed over to the LTTE.

Air force headquarters spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said that their ground troops had recovered four T 56 assault rifles and 240 rounds of ammunition from Kandalkadu, south of Trincomalee. He said that the recovery was made on information received by the SLAF. (SF)