Four SLA soldiers wounded in ambush

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 September 1999, 06:36 GMT]
Four soldier were wounded when the Liberation Tigers attacked Sri Lanka Army (SLA) route clearing patrol at Puthuvelipaalam in Kaavathamunai, about 34 km. northwest of Batticaloa this morning around 8.30 a.m.

Puthuvelipaalam is on the road to the farmlands in the interior. The SLA at the Valaichenai paper mill retaliated to the LTTE ambush by firing more than fifty rounds of mortar in the direction of the paddy fields in the hinterland immediately west of the camp.

Three civilians, a woman and two boys, were wounded by the shelling and were brought later this morning to the Valaichenai hospital.

Sources said that hundreds of people were in the fields in the general area beyond Puthvelipaalam this morning harvesting the paddy (rice). They said that it is feared that more civilians may have been wounded by the SLA shelling.