Clashes in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 September 1998, 23:00 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers and the Special Task Force (STF), clashed Wednesday morning in the 13th Colony area, about 42 kilometers south west of Batticaloa. Residents in the area said that the confrontation was intense.

The casualties sustained by either the STF or the LTTE are not known.

But the Sri Lankan police claimed that the STF had recovered the body of an LTTE member who was killed in the fighting. The police also said the STF had handed the body over to the ICRC.

Meanwhile, sources in Valaichenai said that the Liberation Tigers had fired mortars on the Kinnaiady and Morakkottaanchenai SLA camps, on Wednesday morning, from 8.30-45.

SLA sources said that the LTTE had fired several rounds of 81mm shells from their positions in the western hinterland of the district.

No one was hurt in the attack said the sources.