Sri Lanka military vows to ‘annihilate’ LTTE in east then north

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 14:02 GMT]
After taking control of the eastern province in the next two months, Sri Lanka’s military will recapture the areas held by the Liberation Tigers in the north of the island, the Army (SLA) Chief said this week.
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Outstation undergrads demand safe travel to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 23:16 GMT]
The special meeting, presided by the Jaffna University Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. K. Kumaravadivelu and attended by faculty heads and lecturers held Wednesday at Jaffna campus to explore ways to provide safe travel arrangements to the outstation students back to Jaffna, when the Jaffna University reopens January 22, ended without inconclusively, according to University sources. The Jaffna campus was closed indefinitely when clashes erupted between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on August 11.
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Kokupadaiyan villagers flee fearing air-strike

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 20:06 GMT]
The entire population of Kokupadaiyan village in Musali divisional secretariat division in Mannar district Wednesday sought refuge in adjacent villages due to fear following the aerial strike on Padahuthurai in Ilupakadaivai by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) on Tuesday, sources in Mannar said. Kokupadaiyan village is located in the area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Ilupakadaivai fishing village is also located in the LTTE area.
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SLAF Kfir jets bomb Verugal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 12:11 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets bombed Verugal areas in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory in Trincomalee district Wednesday around 10:00 a.m. SLAF claimed that identified LTTE targets were bombed. Casualty information was not released.
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UN deeply concerned at civilian casualties in Sri Lankan bombardment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 06:52 GMT]
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Margareta Wahlström, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the aerial bombardment on Iluppaikadavai in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled Mannar district, by the Sri Lanka Air Force, killing civilians including children, was a "source of deepest concern." The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also remained concerned about deteriorating livelihoods on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka as well as all those who have been displaced in the country, the statement said.
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29 Batticaloa schools not re-opened, occupied by IDPs

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 17:39 GMT]
Twenty-four Tamil medium schools in the district of Batticaloa have not reopened for the current academic year 2007 Tuesday as they are occupied by hundreds of internally displaced families from Vaharai division as temporary shelters. These schools are located in the government-controlled areas in the education zones of Batticaloa, Kalkudah, provincial education ministry sources said.
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SLA launches artillery attack on LTTE territory in Vavunathivu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 12:22 GMT]
Soldiers from Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Vavunathivu camp fired mortar and artillery shells from 5:10 a.m Tuesday on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held areas in Vavunathivu in Batticaloa, sources from Batticaloa said. SLA spokesperson Prasath Samarasinghe said the attack was retaliation to the LTTE artillery fire on Vavunathivu SLA camp areas from 5:45 a.m to 6:45 a.m Tuesday. He added that one SLA trooper was injured in the LTTE attack.
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Kfirs bomb in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 12:20 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force Kfir jets bombed Panichchenkerny area in Vaharai region in Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) controlled Batticaloa district around 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, sources in the east said.
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Aerial attack on Padahuthurai, a crime against humanity - Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 10:22 GMT]
The Bishop of Mannar Diocese, Rt Rev Rayappu Joseph, who visited Padahuthurai hamlet, which was completely destroyed by indiscriminate aerial bombardment by the Sri Lanka Air Force Tuesday morning, has condemned the bombardment and said the attack had destroyed the settlement of the Internally Displaced persons. There was no military installation of the LTTE in the area, the Bishop told media. The Bishop, calling the bombardment "a crime against humanity," urged the International Community to send independent observers to NorthEast. Death toll has risen to 15, including 7 children below age nine , a pregnant woman, her child and husband.
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14 civilians killed, 35 wounded in aerial bombardment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 05:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force bombers Tuesday morning bombed more than 25 houses, killing at least 14 civilians, including 6 children, and seriously wounding 35 civilians at the coastal hamlet of Padahuthurai in Iluppaikadavai, 24 km northwest of Mannar town. Medical staff at two local hospitals in the area, Mulankavil and Pallamadu, were struggling to transport the seriously wounded, as an ambulance rushed from Mannar hospital, was blocked by Sri Lanka Army soldiers manning the Uyilankulam entry point.
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Tamileelam National Registry of Persons established

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 13:59 GMT]
The Civil Administration in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) administered regions in NorthEast has launched Tamileelam National Registry of Persons on Monday, January 01. The programme was inaugurated by the Commissioner of Tamil Eelam Department of Registration of Persons, S Jeyenthiran, by issuing the first national identity card to LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapaharan. The card will function similar to the Social Security Number (SSN) used in many western democracies, where the number uniquely identifies an individual.
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Battle for Vaharai

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 11:35 GMT]
Vaharai, a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast, is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. More than 15,000 residents and IDPs are now trapped in Vaharai as the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducts its brutal campaign to evict Tamils from the region, closing A-15 the main access road to the town, and imposing economic embargo, while Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfirs fly bombing raids terrorizing the civilians to flee. "They [LTTE] won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview Friday.
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Curfew in Thenmaradchi continues

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 December 2006, 04:11 GMT]
The indefinite extension of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) curfew on Thenmaradchi from Thursday 9:00 p.m continued for more than 24 hours, causing untold difficulties to the residents of the area, confining them indoors, sources from Chavakacheri said. There had been no clashes or extraordinary circumstances calling for search operation in the area where the curfew is being imposed by the SLA, the sources added.
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SLAF Kfir jets bomb Vaharai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 21:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfir jets flew four bombing sorties over Puliyankandalady in Vaharai in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory, Saturday around 9:00 a.m, forcing the civilians who had sought safety in the Vaharai hospital to flee in panic, seeking safety inside bunkers, sources from Vaharai said.


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MP slams aerial bombardment on water refinery

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 10:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), in its latest bombing raids in Vaharai on Thursday, completely destroyed a water refinery constructed by the UN agencies to remedy the drinking water shortage in the area near Verugal Murugan temple, charged S. Jeyanandamoorthy, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian from Batticaloa. In a press communiqué issued on Friday, the MP said: "the bombardment on the water refinery is not only a Ceasefire violation but is a human rights violation and a war crime too."
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Paramilitary attack repulsed in Batticaloa - LTTE

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 07:13 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a counter-attack on a group of paramilitary cadres of Karuna Group, Friday night, when the group attempted to launch a penetration attack on a LTTE camp in Kudumbimalai, northwest of Batticaloa. A wounded paramilitary cadre was captured alive and the dead body of another was recovered by the Tigers, according to the Military Spokesman of the Tigers Irasiah Ilanthirayan. Four Tiger fighters were wounded in the confrontation. Kudumbimalai, a hat shaped hill, is located in the middle of the large Vadamunai-Tharavai region, northwest of Batticaloa.
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Two SLA troopers injured by LTTE fire in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 11:25 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers from the Kadjuwathe SLA camp were seriously injured when the Liberation Tigers retaliated to the intensive mortar and artillery barrage launched by the SLA from its camps at Mankerny, Kadjuwathe and Valaichenai Paper Factory on Vaharai area in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory, Wednesday from 7:30 a.m until 11:00 a.m, sources from Vaharai said.


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SLAF Jets bomb Vaharai, disrupt tsunami memorial event

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 12:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Airforce (SLAF) kfir fighter jets bombed Tuesday morning Kathiraveli and Palchenai residential areas in Vaharai in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory, and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery and rocket fire from SLA camps in Mankerny, Kadjuwathe, during the second anniversary memorial prayers were being held for the tsunami victims at Vaharai Vigneswara temple around 9:25 a.m Tuesday. Five houses were badly damaged but no one was hurt when shells fell and exploded on residential areas, Vaharai sources said.
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6 killed, 9 injured in Jaffna clashes - SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 08:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army authorities in Jaffna said that 6 LTTE members were killed and 9 SLA soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, in clashes at Kakaithivu in Navanthurai, a suburb of Jaffna town, around 8:30 p.m, Monday.
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Tsunami survivors carry 'deep scars' - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 07:56 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in a statement issued Monday, marking two year remembrance of the Boxing Day Tsunami disaster, said the assistance to the people devastated by the tsunami has not progressed beyond the temporary shelter-stage in Tamil areas as Colombo scuttled the internationally promoted joint mechanism signed between the parties. Tamils were "deeply hurt" as Colombo continued to find comfort in using the label of a "sovereign" government, the Tigers said.
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