COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Tamil Tiger rebels said on Tuesday they had overrun an army camp in northern Sri Lanka, killing hundreds of government troops.
The statement from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam came the same day as a moderate Tamil MP was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the capital, Colombo.Military spokesman Brigadier Sunil Tennakoon told Reuters he was awaiting details of the attack at Oddusuddan town in the northern Wanni region and could not make any comment till then.
"Hundreds of Sri Lankan troops have been killed and several hundred injured as the fighting units of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam overran the Sri Lankan military complex at Oddusuddan," the rebels said in a statement faxed from their London office.
It said the rebels had taken control of the strategically important town and its surrounding areas in the attack that began late on Monday and continued until Tuesday.
Oddusuddan, about 175 miles northeast of Colombo, lies on the highway that links the northeastern coastal town of Mullaitivu with the rest of the mainland.
No independent confirmation of the attack was available because the government does not allow journalists access to the frontline unless taken on military conducted tours.
Oddusuddan, captured by the military in an offensive last December, was also the last army-held town on its frontline in the Wanni region.
Earlier, military officials said the army was believed to have suffered heavy casualties in the attack.
Air force helicopter gunships had been called in to assist troops, but further details were not available, the officials said.
There has been fierce fighting between government troops and rebels in the Wanni region during the past week with both sides suffering casualties.
Last September, the rebels overran the army's camp at northern Kilinochchi town in a battle which left nearly a thousand soldiers and rebels dead.
The army suffered a major setback in July 1996 when the rebels overran the military camp at Mullaitivu on the northeastern coast, killing or capturing about 1,200 soldiers.
Atputharajah Nadarajah, an MP for the northern Jaffna district for the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), was shot dead in the south of the capital on Tuesday.
The EPDP is a former Tamil rebel group that has nine seats in the 225-member parliament.
Party officials declined to blame anyone for the killing but LTTE rebels have in the past targeted EPDP members whom they accuse of being traitors to the campaign for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east for minority Tamils.
The LTTE have been fighting since 1983. The war has claimed more than 55,000 lives.