Six troopers killed in LTTE attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 June 2001, 06:15 GMT]
Six soldiers were killed and ten were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked a Sri Lanka army patrol around 8 a.m. Tuesday at Kaavathamunai, 32 kilometres north of Batticaloa. The soldiers were from the 23-2 brigade in the Valaichenai Paper Mills. A Muslim civilian was killed and 15 were wounded in the village of Kaavathamunai in retaliatory shelling from the 23-2 brigade camp. Kaavathamunai is a Muslim village near Valaichenai.

Some houses were damaged in the village, hit by the shelling, residents said. People fled the Valaichenai bazaar in panic Monday morning as angry soldiers who were taking their wounded colleagues to the Kalkudah SLA camp in a bus though the town fired at random. No one, however, was wounded in the firing.

Paper Mills at Valachenai where SLA's 23-2 Brigade HQ is situated. (TamilNet Library photo)

Police sources in Valaichenai said that the Tigers had fired on the SLA sentry point at Kaavathamunai Monday night. The sentry is manned by the SLA only during the day due to troop shortages.

The Liberation Tigers ambushed and attacked the patrol from the 23-2 brigade that had gone to check the environs of the sentry point Tuesday morning.

The civilian killed in the SLA's retaliatory shelling was identified as M.K Subair, 24. The wounded villagers were rushed to the Valaichenai hospital and then to the Teaching Hospital in Batticaloa town.

Mr. Ali Sahir Moulana MP for Batticaloa Tuesday protested to Col. C. Weeratunga, the commanding officer of the 23-2 brigade, that 15 civilians were wounded due to shelling in the village of Kaavaththamunai this morning. The MP told the brigade commander that according to the people of Kaavaththamunai, the army had shelled the village.

"I condemn this attack in which one civilian has been killed and 10 houses damaged. The army has done this deliberately. Some people were wounded by gunfire. The people of the village say that the army had fired on them", the MP said.

Valaichenai bazaar. (TamilNet Library photo)