2ND LEAD

SLA shelling kills 133 civilians including 49 children on Tuesday

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 17:27 GMT]
More than 49 of 133 civilians killed inside 'safe zone' in SLA shelling on Tuesday were children and 16 of them were children below 3 years of age. The SLA deployed internationally banned cluster munitions and fire-bombs against civilians who were stranded without shelter inside the 'safe zone' which has become a killing field, reports TamilNet correspondent from Vanni. 273 civilians, including a GS (village officer) and an ICRC worker, were wounded on Tuesday. 47 of the civilians succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital or after their admittance.

Three civilians who were waiting in a queue to register themselves with the Village Officer (GS) to receive humanitarian supplies were killed in Maathhta'lan. The village officer, Mr. Pulendran, sustained injuries.

A teacher, V. Vanitha, of Tharmapuram Maha Viththiyalayam was among the slain civilians.

The ICRC worker wounded was V. Vincent.

A son of doctor Sittampalam was killed in the shelling.

Around 300 tarpaulin huts burned down to ashes in Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) rocket explosions. A medical store at Valaignarmadam has sustained damage in the shelling and a son of doctor Sittampalam was killed inside a shelter near the medical store.

Chronology: