Tigers fire on SLA camp

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 April 1999, 10:17 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers carried out a brief attack on the Sri Lanka Army detachment at Pillaiyaaradi, four kilometers north of the Batticaloa town, around 2 p.m. this afternoon, wounding a soldier. A woman in a nearby village was wounded by the army's heavy retaliatory fire following the attack.

Sources in Batticaloa said that the Liberation Tigers had withdrawn through the shrub jungle to the south west of the camp. The SLA said that it is yet to determine how the LTTE had come close to the camp through the high security zone.

An army source, however, said that the Tigers may have infiltrated through the shrub and mangrove in the camp's neighbourhood from the coast across the lagoon. The Pillaiyaaradi army detachment stands at the entrance of the Batticaloa town on the highway to Valaichenai. The coast of the western hinterland which is less than 1.5 kilometer across the lagoon from Pillaiyaaradi, is under the LTTE's control.

The wounded soldier was identified as Jayasingha, 23. Reinforcements from the 23-3 brigade headquarters in Batticaloa town were rushed to Pillaiyaaradi soon after the attack.

The wounded civilian is Vairamuththu Sothimuththu, 45, of Thirupperunthurai, 2 kilometers south west of the camp.