Four TELO members killed

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 October 1998, 05:09 GMT]
Four armed cadres of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO)-a paramilitary group working with the SLA- were killed and two were wounded in an ambush by the Liberation Tigers early this morning around 5 a.m. in Aaraiampathy (Aaraipattai), 7 kilometers south of Batticaloa town.

The TELO group was returning to the Special Task Force (STF) camp in Aaraimpathy after a routine night patrol in the areas by the lagoon which separates the western hinterland controlled by the Liberation Tigers and the coastal zone.

The STF deploys the TELO to patrol the lagoon's coast and those parts of Aariampathy that are adjacent to it. The TELO patrol was hit by the blast of a claymore mine that had been fixed to a lamp post near the STF camp.

The Liberation Tigers had also fired on the TELO party after setting off the claymore remotely said Sri Lankan Police sources in Batticaloa.

The STF is an elite commando force deployed in the southern parts of the Batticaloa district and the southeastern sector of the adjacent Ampara district. Many STF units were pulled out since last year to meet the severe manpower shortages faced by the SLA in the areas it captured from the Liberation Tigers in Op. Jayasikurui.

As a consequence, STF depends on the TELO currently to deter the Tigers from entering Aaraiampathy across the lagoon. The TELO cadres killed in this morning's attack are:

1.Thanapalan Baskaran.
2.Thanapaakiyarajah Premadaas.
3.Yogarajah Shanmugarajah.
4.Sivalingam Ahilathaas.

The wounded were identified as:
1.Abraham John.
2.Kandaiah Chandramohan.