SLA artillery attack wounds eight in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2001, 10:33 GMT]
Eight civilians, including a 3-month-old infant, were seriously wounded Saturday when the Sri Lanka army's 23-3 Brigade in Batticaloa town fired heavy artillery on villages across the lagoon in the district's western hinterland. The SLA opened up with heavy artillery fire on the villages of Mandapathadi and Kannankudah around 10.30 a.m.

Saturday hitting several houses and wounding four women, an infant and three men. The injured civilians were brought by tractor across the Valaiyiravu Bridge to the Batticaloa general hospital around noon Saturday. The condition of four, including the infant, is serious, hospital sources said.

Civilians who came from the western hinterland today said that three homes in the village of Mandapathadi were completely destroyed by the SLA artillery attack. One of the houses is still burning, according to them.

The Batticaloa town was rocked by heavy artillery fire Saturday, residents said. The SLA at the Vavunatheevu camp four kilometres southwest of the eastern town went on an operation Friday night into the western hinterland held by the Liberation Tigers, they said. Two soldiers of the group were injured while returning to base this morning.

People of Kannankudah and Mandapathadi began moving out en masse from these villages fearing more artillery attacks by the SLA, residents who fled to Batticaloa town said.

The civilians injured by the SLA attack are:

1. Vanniasingham Sinnakkili, 29.
2. Sivanathan Nalayini, 3 months.
3. Vellaiyar Vanniyasingham, 65.
4. Pannikkapodi Thirukketheeswaran, 20.
5. Ilayathambi Kalimuththu, 55.
6. Tambirasa Oviyam, 30.
7. Nadarasa Jayasithra, 28.
8. S. Kalawathi, 32.