Orphanage escapes Sri Lankan air strike, one wounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 15:11 GMT]
Arivucholai, an orphanage housing 216 children in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Puthukudiyiruppu in Mullaithivu district, narrowly escaped a catastrophic air-strike from SLAF kfir aircrafts Monday evening, according to S. Kalaivannan, an administrative official at the orphanage. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials Tuesday afternoon visited the orphanage, a brother orphanage to Sencholai, Tuesday afternoon. The LTTE administration has sought security assurances through the SLMM in Kilinochchi.



Sri Lankan Kfir bombers dropped two bombs on the playground and the bathing facility of the orphanage Monday evening at 5:45. p.m. One boy was wounded.

"A state of shock prevails among the children at the orphanage," Mr. Kalaivannan said.

The Kantharoopan Arivucholai housing orphaned boys, from 8 months to 18-year-olds, is located near Kaiveli village in Puthukudiyiruppu where a civilian settlement was bombed by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Monday evening.

A one-year-old baby girl and a 12-year-old girl were killed and 15 civilians, most of them women, wounded in the air strike, carried out by the SLAF on the civilian settlement, in revenge for the attack on Sri Lanka Navy in Habarana.

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