LTTE mortar attack kills soldier

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 November 1998, 13:55 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers launched a mortar attack on the SLA camp at Kattaiparichchaan, four kilometres northwest of Mutur in the Trincomalee district, last night around 10.30 p.m., killing one soldier and wounding three.

SLA sources in Trincomalee said that the Tigers had fired more than eight long range mortar shells on the camp. They said that this is the first instance of the LTTE firing long range mortar on the camp.

This SLA camp is located near the Tamil village of Kattaiparichchaan and stands on the edge of the hinterland which is dominated by the Tigers. The camp controls the only access road from the interior to Mutur, and hence to Trincomalee.

The SLA at this camp restricts supplies to civilians living in the LTTE dominated parts south of Trincomalee. The detachment was established in 1990 after bitter fighting between the Tigers and SLA special forces who made an amphibious landing on the coast further west of Kattaiparichchaan.

Meanwhile civilians in the Tamil village of Eechchanthivu have complained to the NGO consortium of Trincomalee that their lives are in danger due to frequent firing in the direction of their homes from the SLA positions in Samachchathivu and Poovarasanthivu. These villages are located directly south of Trincomalee across the bay in the Uppaaru region. The estuary of Sri Lanka's longest river, the Mahawali Ganga, flows here.