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| Sri Lanka |
| Four shot dead after heavy Sri Lanka fighting |
| 2007-07-16 |
| Four civilians were bound and shot dead execution-style in northern Sri Lanka near the scene of heavy battles between troops and Tamil rebels, a police official said Sunday. The bodies of the four were found shot in the head Sunday with their hands tied behind their backs in Vavuniya district. “Four people were found shot dead at Tavasakulam in Vavuniya,” said a police official in Vavuniya, 260 kilometres north of Colombo. “An investigation is under way,” he said adding that it was unclear who was behind the killings. The four were killed in the same region where security forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought pitched battles on Saturday, officials said. The two sides claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties in the weekend fighting with the military saying at least 16 government soldiers and three rebels were killed. The Sri Lankan defence ministry cited different figures, saying that 10 soldiers were killed and 34 wounded. On Sunday the rebels returned the bodies of four soldiers through the Red Cross, local officials said. The defence ministry said “a large number” of Tigers were also killed on Saturday, but did not say how many. Claims by either side cannot be independently verified. The latest fighting came three days after troops wrested control over the final rebel base in the east of the island, a move confirmed by the LTTE. Fighting across Sri Lanka has worsened since the breakdown of a 2002 truce around 19 months ago. |
| Posted by:Fred |