Shelling wounds civilians, damages homes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 September 2000, 07:37 GMT]
A soldier was killed and two were wounded Tuesday night around 11.15 p.m when the Liberation Tigers fired 60 mm mortars on the Kalkudah Sri Lanka army camp, about 34 kilometers north of Batticaloa. A military trained policeman on duty was also wounded. Four civilians were wounded and ten houses were damaged in the Kalkudah village when the SLA retaliated with small mortar fire.

The wounded civilians have been taken to the Batticaloa hospital. The Liberation Tigers had moved in a small group through the army controlled area between Valaichenai and Kalkudah and had positioned themselves near the SLA camp to fire their commando mortars.

Despite counter fire by the SLA, the LTTE group had moved back to the area under their control north of Kalkudah. The army here does not move beyond the immediate environs of its camp after dark, sources said.

Kalkudah was once a bustling tourist resort by the coast, three kilometers east of the Valaichenai town.