LTTE refutes SLAF claims of air strike on Tiger leadership

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 13:11 GMT]
Liberation Tigers Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan Wednesday evening refuted the claims by the Sri Lanka Air Force that it had hit a location of the leader of the LTTE Velupillai Pirapaharan Wednesday morning. Stating that Colombo was spreading false propaganda, Mr. Ilanthirayan said the SLAF attack targeted civilian settlements at Vaddakkachchi twice between 11:10 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. and in the evening between 5:15 and 6:00 p.m.

Mr. Ilanthirayan was responding to questions raised by media in Colombo.

Earlier in the day, the SLAF had claimed that it had hit a key LTTE base describing the target as LTTE's nerve centre and stating it was awaiting confirmation on whether the LTTE leader was residing in the target, which it named as "X-ray base".

Colombo was engaged in such false propaganda, also during the Tsunami catastrophe and on many occasions earlier, he said.