SLAF jets kill 8 civilians

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Eight civilians, including a school girl, were killed and many were wounded when Sri Lankan Air Force Kfir jets bombed Vattakkachchi and Periyakulam east of Paranthan, this morning around 8.30 a.m, said latest reports from the Vanni. A fifty year old woman identified as Sellammah was blown to smithereens as a 250 Kilogram high explosive bomb exploded on her house, said local residents. Residents said that only a few pieces of the saree she was wearing were found on a nearby tree.

Names of the people killed in the airstrike are:

1.Velayutham Mangaiarkarasi (Yalini) 18, GCE (A.L) student. 2.Krishnasamy Vallippillai (displaced from Varani in Jaffna) 3.Thanapaal,55, of Vattakkachchi 4.Namasivayam Balasingham, 55 5.Muththaiah Vasanthakumari,25 6.Sellappah Thangavelu,45 of Velikkandal in Kandavalai 7.Thangavel Sivapaakkiyam, 43 8.Ramanathan Sellammah.

The right leg of an eighteen year old girl, Kumari, was blown off completely below her hip. Doctors at the Puthukkudyiruppu hospital had to remove her damaged left leg below the knee the residents said.

Two seriously wounded civilians identified as Balasingham, 55, and Velayutham Yaalini, 18, died while they were being rushed to the medical centre at Tharumapuram.

Panchalingam Paamini, 22, (school teacher), Selvarajah 40, Kathirkaamu Akileswari, 27, and Thevaki Ramanathan of Murasumoddai were also wounded in the SLAF bombing.

Sources in the Vanni said that details of other wounded civilians are yet to be known.

Two tractors and several houses were destroyed in the SLAF bombing, said residents.

SLAF said earlier that they had identified and bombed a garage belonging to the Liberation Tigers in Murasumoddai which is near Vattakkachchi.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Ministry of Defence this afternoon said:

"On 26 March 1998 in the early hours of the day at Vattakachchi, East of Paranthan kfir ground attack aircraft of the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed and destroyed a LTTE forward base. Vehicles inclusive of tractors and a few thatched huts were completely destroyed due to the air attack."