2ND LEAD (ADDED DETAILS)

Air strike, artillery fire, acts of provocation- LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 April 2006, 12:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka security forces began air attacks and artillery fire without any provacation from the Liberation Tigers, Mr. S.Puleedevan, Secretary General of the LTTE’s peace secretariat in Kilinochchi told TamilNet. He accused the Sri Lanka Government of carrying out the attacks after blocking the Muttur east area, and issuing false reports. "Colombo is issuing false reports accusing the Tigers of an attack on a Sri Lanka Navy vessel. There was no such attack, the accusations are baseless," he said.

The Tigers have urged the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Head, Major General Ulf Henricsson, to assess the ground situation after the Sri Lankan air strikes and continuous shelling in LTTE controlled areas in Muttur East in Trincomalee district and that the SLMM Chief was making arrangement to visit the affected areas in Trincomalee to assess the ground situation, Mr.Puleedevan said.

Meanwhile, the European Union representative in Colombo, the Ambassador to Netherlands, Mr. Reynout S. van Dijk, has been in touch with the LTTE leadership as well as with GoSL and urged parties to uphold the CFA agreement and to exercise patience, informed sources said.

The EU reprentative has expressed concern to Sri Lankan Government regarding the reports of air strike, artillery attack on Tamil villages within the LTTE controlled areas and the closure of entry points, sources added.