SRI LANKA: Tamil Tiger rebels attack a school, killing three civilians and wounding 10 students

Record ID: 352920

  • Title: SRI LANKA: Tamil Tiger rebels attack a school, killing three civilians and wounding 10 students
  • Date: 8th December 2006
  • Summary: INJURED SCHOOLCHILDREN IN HOSPITAL (SOUNDBITE) (Sinhala) W.A. RANJITH, INJURED SCHOOLCHILD, SAYING: "The small ones were playing. We were in the school hall. When the first shell fell everyone ran. All got injured by the second shell." MORE INJURED CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 23rd December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAENOMKEYB1DX0JGCR2FVO7W36
  • Story Text: Tamil Tiger artillery fire hit a school and its surroundings in northeast Sri Lanka on Thursday (December 7), killing three civilians, including a child, and wounding 10 students, the military said.
    But the rebels denied targeting the school and instead accused government forces of launching an offensive in the east.
    The attack in the eastern district of Trincomalee comes a day after President Mahinda Rajapakse reimposed an anti-terrorism law allowing security forces wide powers to arrest, search and interrogate suspected rebels.
    The military said some of the students wounded in the artillery fire were aged 15 and 16. The civilians, including a 10-year-old child were killed, when a second burst of shells landed nearby, they added.
    Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan denied the rebels had shelled a school, saying it was "not our tradition", instead accusing the military of mounting an offensive on their territory in the east, which they were countering.
    The rebels had earlier warned ordinary people would suffer and the government would face a backlash for reinstating the Prevention of Terrorism Act, dormant since a 2002 ceasefire.
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