Friendly fire kills 3 SLA soldiers

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 1999, 18:03 GMT]
Three Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in the sea by their own colleagues on Jaffna's southeastern coast last night. SLA troops on the Thalaiyadi coast in Vadamaradchi east had mistaken a speed boat coming from the Vettilaikkerni army camp for a Sea Tiger craft and had opened fire.

The soldiers in the boat had no communications equipment to inform the Thalaiyadi SLA camp of their arrival.

The Vettilaikkerni SLA base which is further south of Thalaiyadi on the peninsula's southeastern coast had not communicated that the three soldiers were coming by speed boat.

The SLA detachment at Thalaiyadi and army positions by the beach in the Maruthankerni sector had opened heavy fire on the speed boat and had also shelled the sea in the general direction in which the craft was approaching the shore.

The shelling and firing had started around 8 p.m. last night and had continued until 1 a.m. in the early hours of the morning today.

Sources said that two soldiers in the boat were killed by SLA fire from the coast. Residents said that the third SLA soldier died upon being brought ashore this morning.

One of the numerous flares fired by the SLA towards the sea from the Thalaiyadi camp hit a house on Beach Road in Maruthankerni. The house was completely burnt residents said this afternoon.