Civilians at LTTE checkpoint escape SLA MBRL attack

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 August 2007, 10:23 GMT]
More than 150 Tamil civilians waiting at the LTTE's Pu'liyangku'lam checkpoint to travel to Vanni, narrowly escaped injuries from artillery barrage and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) around 5:30 p.m. Monday. Six busses and eight lorries loading goods to be taken to Vanni escaped without damages, according to sources in Vanni.

SLA allows public traffic to enter Vanni only thrice a week from morning to 5:30 p.m. Travellers gathered at the checkpoint to go home after the routine checking at LTTE checkpoint.

As soon as the ICRC representatives left the scene, the SLA started firing artillery and MBRL. People screamed and ran for cover.

The attack started at 5:30 p.m. lasted until 6:50 p.m. Again the artillery attack began at 7:00 p.m. and lasted till 8:15 p.m. The shells fell between 500 meters to 5 km of the checkpoint.

However, no casualties occurred in these attacks.

Due to the attacks a number of houses and vegetation in Paalamoaddai, Navvi, Pan'rikkeytha Ku'lam and Panikkaneeraavi were damaged, S. Gnanam, the Political Head of Vavuniya district said.