The World - News from Jan. 1, 1988

Tamil guerrillas and a previously unknown Muslim group clashed in eastern Sri Lanka for a second successive day in bitter fighting that left more than 30 people dead, police said. They said clashes erupted at Kattanakudy, 190 miles east of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo and near the city of Batticaloa, after the Muslim Jihad organization executed the village commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the strongest Tamil group fighting for independence in Sri Lanka’s north and east. The Tamil Tigers responded by abducting three Muslims, prompting Jihad fighters to shoot four Tamils to death, the police said. The Tamils then kidnaped 14 more Muslims and detained them in their headquarters, they said.