Petrol tankers attacked

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 January 2000, 09:25 GMT]
A petroleum tanker driver was killed and two others wounded when unidentified gunmen fired on two tankers owned by the Petroleum Co-Operation around 8 a.m. this morning, police said. The incident took place near a Sri Lanka Army camp at Punanai, 50 km. north of Batticaloa on the Colombo road.

The vehicles were transporting kerosine to Batticaloa from Colombo.

The driver of one of the tankers died on the spot. His body was taken to the Welikande hospital.

The police blamed the Liberation Tigers for the incident. SLA troops conducted a search operation in the jungles of Punanai in a bid to capture the attackers, the police added.

Separately, a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier was killed in an attack by Liberation Tigers at Kiran, about 28 km. north of Batticaloa, around 5.45 p.m. yesterday evening.

His body was taken to the Polonnaruwa hospital.

The Tigers fired small arms and threw grenade at the SLA unit which was returning to camp at Kumburumoolai after duty at a road check post. The soldiers returned fire. It was not known if there were any LTTE casualties, sources said.