Four soldiers wounded in Mannar clashes

[TamilNet, Monday, 07 February 2000, 12:22 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded in yesterday's confrontations with the Liberation Tigers in the Mannar District, army sources said.

The wounded were admitted to Anuradhapura hospital, the sources said.

The troops launched a limited operation to displace the LTTE's artillery positions, and to divert possible LTTE artillery fire away from Mannar. This was to avoid any threat to the VIPs visiting Mannar to declare open a new telephone exchange, the sources said.

Meanwhile the Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio said in its morning news broadcast that the SLA fired artillery from their positions at Murunkan, Thallady and Manthai. The Sri Lanka Navy also fired artillery from Pallimunai, the radio added.