2nd lead

SLA shelling kills 15 civilians, injures 20

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 August 2006, 16:15 GMT]
At least 15 Tamil civilians were killed and 20 others were seriously injured when artillery shells fired by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Navy Sunday hit Nallur and Upooral villages in the Muttur east and Eachchilampathu division in the south of Trincomalee district. This incident took place Sunday night around 7.15 p.m., sources in Muthur said.

Upooral and Nallur are among the several coastal villages in the LTTE held territory in the Trincomalee district, sources said

Members of the civil society have gone to these villages to collect more details about the dead and the injured in the deadly artillery attack by the Sri Lankan government troops.

Further details are not known.

The attack comes hours after the LTTE's Political leadership told the visiting Norwegian special envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, that they are willing to re-open the sluice gates at Maavilaru.



Later, Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials, Liberation Tigers Political Head S. Elilan and civilian representatives who went to Maavilaru to re-open the sluice gates came under Sri Lanka Army artillery attack.

Sri Lankan Government Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) said in press release that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) had entered this area unannounced.

"SCOPP informed the SLMM Headquarters in Colombo and sought the withdrawal of the SLMM from this operational area in order to prevent endangering the lives of SLMM Monitors," the press release further said.

The SLMM has not yet commented on the incident.