Artillery duel along Jaffna FDLs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 20:05 GMT]
Exchange of heavy mortar and artillery fire and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) fire continued between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Forward Defence Lines (FDL) from Muhamalai to Kilali in Thenmaradchy and Nagarkovil area in Vadamaradchy east area, Monday evening untilTuesday evening, sources in Jaffna said.
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LTTE Air Strike, no terrorism- SAAG

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 12:16 GMT]
B. Raman, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG) Chennai, says in his analysis: "The TAF's [Tamileelam Air Force's] air strike was well-planned and equally well-executed. It was a night operation taking advantage of the weak capability of the SLAF for night operations. It was a precision attack, which carefully avoided causing any casualty or damage in the international airport, which could have roused international ire. There were no civilian casualties----targeted or collateral. As a result, it would not be possible to characterise the attack as an act of terrorism. It was pure and simple a conventional air strike."
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2 Tamil civilians arrested in Colombo after air strike

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 10:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Police took two persons, both Tamils, into custody in Colombo and its suburbs on Monday in cordon and search operations conducted in connection with the air strike on Katunayake air base by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), military sources said.
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Bomb blast kills 2 SLA troopers, 4 EPDP members in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 05:04 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers and four Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP) members were killed at Kommanthurai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp in Batticaloa district Tuesday around 6:50 a.m, when explosives in a tractor blew up when the troopers opened fire as the driver of the tractor failed to stop on orders, Eravur police in Batticaloa said.
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Sri Lanka blackout on Air Force losses

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2007, 22:24 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s President held an emergency meeting of the country’s security leadership Monday as the government imposed a total blackout on the Liberation Tigers' bombing raid on Katunayake, the island’s main airbase in the early hours. Whilst the government says only two helicopter gunships were slightly damaged, airmen coming off duty told reporters in Colombo that several SLAF jet bombers were put out of action by fierce fires which broke out in the hangars struck by the LTTE aircraft. Up to 40% of the SLAF’s strike capability has been knocked out, they said.
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UNP demands parliamentary debate on air attack

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2007, 21:13 GMT]
Ranil Wickremasinghe, leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), has requested the Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to summon the parliament immediately to discuss the current security situation in Sri Lanka following the Monday predawn air strike by the air wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the Katunayake airbase.
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Sri Lankan MIG bombers attack coastal villages in Mannar, Mullaitheevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 March 2007, 13:23 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Russian made MIG bombers Monday noon attacked Vellankulam, located north of Iluppaikkadavai in Mannar district and Pokkanai in Puthukudiyiruppu in Mullaithivu district in the evening around 5:30 p.m. Both the locations bombed were civilian areas.
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Air-Tigers attack Katunayake military airbase

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 20:06 GMT]
Two attack air-crafts belonging to Liberation Tigers carried out bombing raids at the Sri Lanka Air Force airbase at Katunayake at 12:45 a.m. early morning Monday and returned safely to Vanni, military spokesperson of the LTTE, Irasaiah Ilanthiraiyan told TamilNet. The targets for the air attack were the SLAF's Kfir and MiG-27 hangars at the military base located adjoining the Katunayake International Airport (KIA), Ilanthiraiyan said. Meanwhile, military officials in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo said 3 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) personnel were killed and 15 wounded in the attack.
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CID to question Samaraweera

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 12:35 GMT]
Media reports in Colombo said Mangala Samaraweera, one of the three-sacked ministers by Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse in a major cabinet reshuffle last month, is likely to be taken in for questioning regarding an alleged malpractice during his tenure as minister. Mr. Samaraweera was foreign minister when he was dismissed from the cabinet, sources said.
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Engineered Catastrophe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 March 2007, 11:52 GMT]
Batticaloa has turned into an area of humanitarian disaster, and a battle ground for refugee figures, as more than 100,000 residents of Paduvankarai districts were forced to flee to GoSL controlled regions by the shelling of Sri Lankan Armed Forces inside LTTE controlled areas during the first two weeks of March. The changing IDP numbers have swelled to 165,485. While UN appealed for "vital funds to boost its operations in eastern Sri Lanka" and leftist parties accused the Government of engineering "demographic change," Sri Lanka Government spokesperson K. Rambukwella dismissed the severity saying only 52,000 are displaced, contradicting his own administration's official figures.
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SLA offensive thwarted, civilians saved - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 18:19 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers who had taken more than 120 civilians as "human shields" against Tiger artillery fire and advanced into Liberation Tigers territory in Vavuniya-Mannar border Friday morning were forced to pull back their soldiers from Thampanai and Sinna Pandivirichchan at around 10:30 p.m after 15 hours of heavy fighting Friday. Liberation Tigers officials said they had defeated the two pronged offensive, without harming the civilians who were in the hands of the SLA. Around 60 SLA soldiers were killed, the Tigers claimed. Official figures from Colombo released Saturday said 14 soldiers were killed and 42 wounded.
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SLA holds Tamil journalist, says RSF

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 15:10 GMT]
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) said in a press release issued Friday that Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was involved in the abduction and disappearance of Subramaniam Ramachandran, a journalist working for Tamil daily, Yarl Thinakural. Ramachandran disppeared on 15 February after being questioned at the Kalikai junction, Vadamaradchy SLA camp, and RSF said his collegeues believe that he is being held in an SLA camp.
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SLA attempt to invade LTTE territory beaten- Seeralan

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 15:08 GMT]
S. Seeralan, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Batticaloa District Deputy head of Political wing, said the attempt by SLA to invade into LTTE territory, from their camps in Unnichai and Vavunathivu, has been successfully thwarted.
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SLA takes human shields in Vavuniya Mannar border - LTTE

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 March 2007, 05:00 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam officials in Kilinochchi Friday charged that more than 300 Sri Lankan Army (SLA) troopers had breached 2 km into LTTE territory and taken more than 120 villagers of Periyathampanai, around 10 km southeast of Madu, in Vavuniya Mannar border, as human shields Friday morning around 7:30 a.m.
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Reckless Justice

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 March 2007, 02:23 GMT]
Discharge papers to release Mawbima journalist, Munusamy Parameswary, 25, who was arrested on 22nd November under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and held for nearly four months, on suspicion of "helping the LTTE and a suspected suicide bomber," were sent Wednesday morning, by Harshika De Silva, State Counsel representing the Attorney General (AG), to Colombo chief Magistrate Court. Parameshwari was released Thursday at 10:00 a.m..
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Tigers raid SLA camp, checkposts on A-15 road in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 07:49 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched heavy artillery shelling on Sri Lanka Army camps located in Morakkoddanchenai and Mavadivembu, and on the checkposts along Trincomalee Batticaloa A-15 road in a pre-dawn attack inflicting damage to the SLA positions in the area north of Batticaloa. LTTE fighters raided at least one SLA camp, located at Mavadivembu, according to initial reports. SLA sources claimed to have located 8 bodies of LTTE fighters after the raid which lasted for more than 2 hours. At least 4 SLA troopers were killed and 8 SLA troopers were seriously wounded in LTTE shelling that started around 12:45 a.m. The LTTE is yet to release details about the attack.
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Karuna group, SLA, abduct 5 IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 16:19 GMT]
Five persons, including a Hindu priest, two teen aged sisters, and two youths from the Internally Displaced People (IDP)s displaced from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas in Batticaloa district, have been taken away by paramilitary Karuna group personnel and soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Intelligence wing within the last 10 days, according to complaints lodged with Batticaloa Human Rights commission by their relatives.
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Colombo conspires to alter East's demography- NLF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 11:41 GMT]
Dr.Wickremabahu Karunaratne, leader of the New Left Front (NLF) said at a news conference held Monday at Hotel Nippon in Colombo organized by the National Front Against War (NFAW) that Sri Lanka Government is conspiring to change the demography of the eastern province by forcibly driving out Tamil people and settling members of the majority community, media sources said.
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Sooriyarachchi remand extended, attends parliament under escort

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 11:14 GMT]
Kaduwela Magistrate Tuesday ordered further remand for Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, parliamentarian of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government till March 27. The court further said it could consider application by Mr. Sooriyarachchi to attend parliamentary sittings during remand period, legal sources said. Accordingly, Mr Sooriarachchi attended the parliament under escort Tuesday afternoon. Opposition parliamentarians greeted him with applause when he entered the well of the House, sources said.
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SLA soldier killed in Kuchchaveli

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 00:11 GMT]
A soldier of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was killed at Sembimalai in Kuchchaveli police division Trincomalee Sunday evening when an unidentified group of persons fired at a foot patrol of the SLA, military sources said.
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