COLOMBO June 24: The Sri Lankan Army today claimed to have busted a major LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) spy ring within its ranks, by arresting eight Muslim soldiers in Jaffna, including the gang kingpin and a close associate of LTTE's intelligence chief, Pottu Amman, military sources said.

The spy ring came to light following the arrest of a Muslim soldier three days ago in Jaffna, the sources said. The soldier was a rank LTTE activist before joining army in 1988 and took part in a guerrilla raid by the LTTE men on a police camp near Valachanennai in eastern region in which 50 policemen were killed. Ten Muslim policemen who were captured along with their Sinhalese colleagues during the raid were however let off, they said.

His confessions led to the arrest of seven other muslim soldiers, the sources said.

The sources said that army had reports that the unnamed soldier was a close associate of Pottu Amman who passed on information about military operations to the LTTE intelligence wing since 1988.

Speculation about the presence of LTTE spy network in the army was rife after the fall of the north eastern Mullaithivu army camp in August last year in which over 1400 soldiers and officers were killed by the rebels.

According to army intelligence reports, a Tamil officer, who held a key position in the camp provided strategic information about the garrison to the rebels before the attack. He reportedly survived the attack and joined the rebel ranks, the reports said.

Meanwhile in another development a delegation of the leaders of `mothers front' an organisation comprising of the family members of missing persons who disappeared after army raids would be meeting President Chandrika Kumaratunga next week to complain about the in action in tracing their missing relatives.

A delegation of the front's leaders were currently in Colombo apprising various leaders and human rights organisations about the plight of missing persons in Jaffna during army opeations there. According to members of the delegation, 600 people were found missing in the past two years.

On the battle front, at least 47 Tamil rebels and 13 Sri Lankan soldiers , including an officer, were killed and about 100 wounded in fierce fighting yesterday on the northern Jaffna highway as troops inched closer to LTTE stronghold.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.