Tigers hit 13th Colony STF Camp

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers fired mortars on the Special Task Force (STF) camp in the 13th Colony, about 20 miles south west of Batticaloa near the district border with Ampara in the early hours of the morning today, seriously wounding the Officer In Charge (OIC) of the detachment.

Sources in Ampara said that the OIC was rushed to the Ampara hospital and that his condition is critical.

However they declined to reveal details about other casualties in the Tiger shelling.

The STF launched a cordon search operation in a large area covering the 13th Colony, Central Camp, Raanamadu, Palaiyadivettai and Mandur soon after the incident.

No details of the number of civilians arrested and taken by the STF in this operation are known.

The STF meanwhile claimed this morning that some of its commandos who were travelling in a tractor from Thirukkovil had confronted a group of Tigers around 6.30 a.m. this morning at Kannakipuram, four miles south of Akkaraipatttu in the Ampara district. The STF said that one Tiger was killed in the firefight.

In another incident last night in the large Tamil coastal village of Thirukkovil in the southeastern part of the Ampara district, a civilian, identified as K. Subramaniam was grievously wounded when the STF retaliated to LTTE fire by shooting at random from it positions in the area.

The STF has a large base here which is in the premises of the Thirukkovil rural hospital.