WORLD : Tamil Militants Kill 40 Villagers
Tamil militants wielding knives and automatic weapons stormed through a fishing village in northern Sri Lanka, setting fire to houses and killing at least 40 villagers, a senior military official said today.
The official said the massacre took place Wednesday evening in the ethnic Sinhalese-dominated village of Vella Mundel, about 80 miles north of Colombo.
Rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the powerful ethnic Tamil separatist group fighting to create an independent homeland for the nation’s minority Tamil population, were responsible for the attack, the official said.
“We have recovered 15 bullet-ridden bodies,” he said.
Initial reports from the village said police rescued two wounded villagers, who told them an unspeciied number of armed militants killed people on sight. Officials said the two wounded villagers told them at least 40 people had been killed in the attack.
“A large number of fishing huts have also been burned down,” the official said. “We fear that there are bodies charred inside.”
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