The army conducting operations in the Udayarakattukulam and Udayarakattu areas had recovered a foreign made communication tower about 200 feet in height. A senior army official told The Island that troops had moved into the LTTE camp where the recovery was made on Sunday (1).

The official said that Task Force I and II had been involved in a series of confrontations over the weekend. Along with the transmission tower, the army had recovered One multi purpose machine gun, twelve T-56 assault rifles, thirty rounds of ammunition, four hand grenades, one lorry, 143 three anti personnel mines, two radio communication sets, several barrels containing kerosene, one 12.7 anti-aircraft gun barrel, one light machine gun, five RPG rounds and five bodies of LTTE cadres.

The army said that troops had launched an operation to locate five missing personnel.

In support of ground operations, the SLAF launched an air strike on LTTE position about 3 km north of Udayarakattukulam.

Meanwhile a two-acre plot of land that houses a luxurious two-storeyed residential quarter, believed to have been used by none other than PRABHAKARAN himself was completely brought under the control of 58 Division troops as of late Sunday (1) evening, giving one more shock to the troops.

The two-storeyed fully furnished residential palace with four separately air conditioned spacious rooms had a firing range outside the building, which the troops believe would have been used for training by PRABHAKARAN himself or his top rung leaders whenever he visits here. The house has been provided electricity with three super sound generators and the entire house floor has been tiled with ceramics.

All the roads to the housing site remain macadam and well prepared with nice landscape sceneries. The suspicion on PRABHAKARAN’s frequenting at the place was further compounded by the fact that the troops came across an expensive MARKS SPENCER shirt of 42 ½ cm size, which is also said to be the shirt size of the terrorist leader.

Several oxygen tanks were also recovered from the housing site.