Jets hit correct targets - military

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 September 1999, 12:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) spokesman, Brigadier Sunil Tennekoon, said at the weekly cabinet press briefing in Colombo this morning that Air Force jets had correctly hit their targets in Puthukkudiyiruppu on Wednesday. He was responding to questions from journalists about the bombing of a busy market place in northern Sri Lanka yesterday.

"We hit the correct targets. They were LTTE camps. The bomb attack in the general area of Puthukkudiyiruppu was successful" the SLA spokesman insisted when journalists pointed out that the ICRC has confirmed that place bombed by the SLAF jets yesterday was a busy market and that 21 civilians were killed and more than 40 wounded in the attack.

Sri Lanka's Media Minister Mr.Mangala Samaraweera and Director of the Govt. Department of Information, Mr.Ariya Rubasingha were also present at the press briefing.

The military spokesman also said that the SLA had conducted a limited operation at Thattuvaankottil in Paranthan east last night in which two soldiers were wounded and two Tigers had been killed.

He claimed that troops had recovered two T-56 assault rifles, four magazines, 78 rounds of ammunition and 4 grenades during a search in Thirunelvely in Jaffna.

They had also recovered 20 kilos of explosives, 5 claymore mines and ten detonators in search operations in the peninsula, he said.

The SLA had found 1.5 kilograms of explosives hidden in plastic tubes at a tuition centre in Kaithady according to Brigadier Sunil Tennekoon.

Elsewhere, a man and his wife were injured at Sampur in the Muttur area when the Sri Lankan naval gunboats shelled the village yesterday night, residents said.

The couple, Velautham Kanagaretnam (45) and Kanagaretnam Vimaladevi.have been admitted to the Muttur hospital, hospital sources said.

The shelling began around 9 p.m. and continued for about half an hour, residents said. About 30 shells were fired they added.

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