COLOMBO, April 14,Reuter: Tamil rebels stormed a Sri Lankan army outpost on. The northwest coast on Wednesday night killing seven soldiers and wounding six, military officials said on Thursday.

They said guerrillas, believed to belong to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, attacked the camp at Palugaturai, 185 km from Colombo, with mortar bombs and small arms fire.

The soldiers fired back but casualties among the rebels were not known, the officials said.

Officials said two rebels were killed and 14 others detained by Indian troops during search operations in the eastern district of Batticaloa a in the past 24 hours.

 Residents said rebel gunmen raided two jewelry shops in Tuesday in Mannar in the northwest province and Jaffna in the north and got away with jewelry worth 7.7 million rupees (225,000 dollars).

About 50,000 Indian soldiers have been deployed in the north and east to implement last July’s Indo Sri Lanka peace pact aimed at ending Tamil separatist violence.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 22, 1988