SLDF has so far counted approximately 525 heads of LTTE cadre killed over the week end. In military operations the number of dead are counted by the number of heads found while any bodies missing the head are not added. Hence the term 'head count' which is often used in everyday parlance.
While limiting the counting to the heads of the dead helps keep the numbers accurate and prevents double counting, high intensity confrontations which result in missing heads often leads to under-reporting. The last confrontation in which the SLDF broke the LTTE's backbone may well be one such instance.
It is now known that the LTTE leader and his entourage managed to penetrate through the military cordon and escape with a contingent of body guards and others who managed tp escape with them. As intense barrages of attacks followed as they fled, a large number is said to have perished while equal numbers are mortally wounded. The remaining tigers have somehow managed to drag the dead and the injured away with them into the no-fire zone, which the government had instructed its forces not to attack. In the overall count, at least 750 bodies of slain LTTE cadre have been found in various states of decay while only 525 have been taken into the official count.
Though the military sources refrain from commenting on the potential death count, tamil sources in UK and elsewhere are whispering the LTTE head count may be anywhere between 1000 -1200. These may include the numbers killed while attempting to evade the SLDF and escape into the civillian zone and those who died since then.
In the meanwhile unconfirmed reports from SL indicate a large number of friendly fire injuries to SLDF, and a sizeable number of deaths as well. However these numbers are not in anyway comparable to the numbers suffered by the LTTE.
Sometimes it takes a picture to tell a thousand words. In this case the numbers themselves are conclusive.
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