4TH LEAD

SLA shelling kills 5 IDPs, children in Ki'linochchi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 August 2008, 12:15 GMT]
Five civilians, including two children, displaced recently from Mannaar district were killed Saturday evening when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery attack on Puthumu'rippu village, situated 7 km southwest of Ki'inochchi town. Three civilians were rushed to Ki'inochchi hospital in critical condition, according to medical sources. The SLA attack, targeting the village, densely populated by IDPs, comes a day after Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) dropped leaflets threatening heavy casualties to civilians in Vanni unless they moved from LTTE administered Vanni.

The artillery attack has taken place at 4:40 p.m.

The civilians killed were identified as 28-year-old Karuppiah Anantharajah, his 2-year-old son Anantharajah Gowtham, 27-year-old Thilakeshvari Visvanthan with her 1-month-old baby and 28-year-old Alagesan Luka Pathmalatha.

47-year-old Kalyani Balasubram is in critical state with serious injuries. She was unconscious and rushed to Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

The other wounded were identified as 17-year-old female Rajeswary Balasubramaniyam, and 10-month-old baby Iyalvili Alageswaran.