3RD LEAD

Tiger aircraft rockets Palaly base, curfew in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 August 2006, 15:53 GMT]
At least one unidentified aircraft flew over the Sri Lankan military base at Palaly firing rockets at around 9.30 p.m. Friday, sources in Jaffna town said. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) artillery fire being directed from the base stopped after the attack, the sources said. Meanwhile a curfew has been clamped on Jaffna town. The LTTE has vowed to repel the SLA offensive on the Elephant Pass area.

“We will use our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in an all out defensive measure to protect our people and homeland,” Mr. Irasaiah Ilanthirayan, the military spokesman of the Tigers told TamilNet when contacted to comment on the reports of aerial attack on Palaly military base.

Sri Lankan artillery elsewhere kept up their shelling towards LTTE controlled southern Jaffna from there large numbers of people are fleeing into Kilinochchi district.

The A9 road in LTTE controlled areas along which civilians were attempting to move was being targeted by SLA shelling, sources said.

The LTTE’s official radio, Voice of Tigers (VoT), meanwhile urged civilians living close to SLA positions in Thenmaradchchi to move away. The radio warned that LTTE artillery fire responding to the SLA offensive would target camps there.

The Tiger radio urged civilians to stay 1 km away from Eluthumadduval, Pulo-pallai, Kilali, Kodikamam, Kachchai and Varani in particular.

Meanwhile, the Superintendent of Police in Jaffna, Erik Perera, imposed an indefinite curfew from 7:00 p.m. Friday in Jaffna.