Two civilians wounded in shelling

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 January 1999, 11:18 GMT]
Two civilians, K.Tharumaratnam, 47 and his daughter T.Asoka, were injured when a shell fired by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) stationed at the Usanaar Eththam, hit their house at Kaayaankerni yesterday morning around 4.30 a.m.

They have been admitted to the Batticaloa hospital.

Sources said sounds of gunfire were heard before the shell attack.

Kaayaankerni is officially under the control of the SLA. However, the army dies little patrolling in the area due to manpower shortages. Therefore it is sometimes treated as enemy terrain.

The shells were fired from the Usanaar Eththam SLA camp which is about 300 meters from Kaayankerni. Usanaar Eththam is about three kilometres north of Valaichenai.