SLA officer killed

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
One SLA officer was killed and five soldiers were wounded last night around 9.30 p.m. in Santhiveli, 28 miles north of Batticaloa in a fire fight with the Liberation Tigers.

The dead officer was only identified as Lt. Perera. The soldiers had gone on patrol to Santhiveli from the nearby SLA camp at Morakkottaanchenai.

The army claimed that it had recovered the body of an LTTE member who was killed in the fighting along with his assault rifle.

Meanwhile, two children, Nadarajah Anandakumar, 13, Kunaratnam Sivanthan,12, were seriously wounded this morning around 10.30 when a shell they had picked up from a ditch where they were playing exploded.

They were admitted to the Valaichenai hospital but were later removed to the Batticaloa hospital.