4 civilians killed, SLAF bombs petrol station, bus depot in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 2009, 14:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a petrol station and a bus depot killing four civilians and causing injuries to 8 close to Mullaiththevu hospital, 1 km away from the town. 8 buses were destroyed, the depot building damaged and the petrol station completely destroyed, initial reports from Mullaiththeevu said. The indiscriminate bombardment by the SLAF has taken place at 5:00 a.m. Friday.
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5 killed, 28 wounded in SLAF attacks on Murasumoaddai for second day

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 January 2009, 09:41 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers hit civilian settlements three times in Murasumoaddai in Vanni killing civilians and causing injuries to many on Thursday. At least 5 civilians have been reported dead so far by the medical staff at Tharmpuram hospital. 28 civilians, including five children, were admitted at the hospital after the attacks. Civilians were still trapped in the site as Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery barrage on the settlement after the indiscriminate air strike. 10 civilians have been killed and more than 50 wounded within 30 hours on Wednesday and Thursday in Murasumoaddai.
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SLAF bombings kill woman, 10 injured, in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 28 December 2008, 10:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfir fighter jets bombed Saturday three civilian settlements killing a 24-year-old woman and seriously injuring ten persons, including an 18-year-old girl who lost both her legs, sources in Vanni said. The bombers first struck Iyakkachchi around 9:20 a.m and attacked the civilian settlements in Vaddakkachchi, Ira’naimadu, around 2:10 p.m. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) kept firing artillery shells on Iyakkachchi, Ira'naimadu and Vaddakkachchi, as the jets bombed the areas.
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Residents of remote Mannaar village protest against NGO removing soil

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2008, 15:59 GMT]
Civilians of Madukkarai, a remote village in Naanaaddaan division of Mannaar district, marched towards their Divisional Secretariat Friday after armed policemen from Murungkan Police beat up the protestors last Tuesday. Police interfered after the villagers held NGO workers of LEADS (Lanka Evangelical Alliance Development Service) as captives for almost one day alleging that the NGO workers were removing fertile soil from the premises of their housing scheme in Madukkarai for a long time despite their objection.
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SLAF bombardment kills livestock

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 December 2008, 13:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir fighter jets bombed Friday morning a locality on Ki'linochchi Paranthan Road killing another herd of cows. SLAF fighter jets continued bombardment on Thursday and Friday while the Sri Lanka Army stepped up artillery attacks on several fronts. SLAF bombers hit 4 times a civilian settlement in Mayilvaakanapuram in Visvumadu Friday around 5:30 p.m.
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100 SLA killed, 250 wounded, heavy fighting in Ki'linochchi - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 December 2008, 14:28 GMT]
More than 100 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and at least 250 SLA soldiers wounded Monday when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) repulsed a fresh offensive push, said S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat, quoting LTTE's field commanders. Heavy fighting raged from 5:30 to 12:45 when the SLA attempted to advance from Uruththirapuram towards Ki'linochchi and Ira'naimadu. Several corpses of the SLA soldiers were seen in the battlefield and the Tigers were engaged in seizing arms and ammunitions after routing the offensive on two fronts, Mr. Puleedevan further said. The fighting was continuing on three fronts.
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Tigers recover 12 SLA bodies after preemptive strike, 60 killed, 150 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 16:03 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) counter-offensive units carried out a preemptive strike on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) offensive formation in Mu'rika'ndi - Ira'naimadu area Saturday, killing at least 60 SLA soldiers, LTTE officials told TamilNet. The SLA was pushed back 2 km, and the Tigers said they have recovered 12 dead bodies of SLA soldiers so far in the clearing mission, according to latest update from the LTTE officials in Ki'linochchi. More than 150 SLA soldiers were wounded in the counter operation, Tiger officials told TamilNet.
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Colombo steps up bombardment on Vanni, 3 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 December 2008, 05:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Saturday a coastal area in Mullaiththeevu where thousands of civilians, recently displaced, had established temporary shelters. The bombers dropped eight bombs on fishing huts and boats, lighting up the stretch using para lights, causing panic among the refugees and the fishermen engaged in fishing at 4:55 a.m. The bombers arrived again at 5:35 to bomb the area with 8 eight more bombs, targeting the temporary shelters of refugees. The SLAF bombers attacked Mullaiththeevu and Ki'linochchi five times within four hours in the morning. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched an artillery barrage from all the frontiers of Vanni from 4:20 a.m. till 5:50 a.m.
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Kompan Chaayntha Ku'lam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 December 2008, 06:42 GMT]
The tank where a tusker fell dead
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3 civilians, including child, killed in SLA shelling in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2008, 13:02 GMT]
A 5-month-old child, sleeping inside an IDP hut near Thakarap-Pi'l'laiyaar temple on Hudson Road in Vaddakkachchi, was decapitated by a shrapnel of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shell Saturday morning around 9:30. 26-year-old mother of the child was wounded in the artillery barrage that targeted the IDP settlement. Meanwhile, two males who went to their agricultural lands in Kanakapuram, a suburb of Ki'linochchi town, to unearth cassava roots, were killed in SLA shelling around 11:45 a.m. A 17-year-old youth narrowly escaped death with injuries from the shelling.
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School girl killed in Vaddakkachchi in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 11:08 GMT]
A 6-year-old child was killed and a male was injured Monday around 11:45 a.m. when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeted Hudson Road (Ira'naimadu Vaddakkachchi Road), according to initial details from Tamileelam police officials in Vanni. The killed girl was on her way back home from Vaddakkachchi school as the school closed earlier due to artillery barrage.
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Quick IDP action averts carnage from Cluster bombs

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 December 2008, 01:33 GMT]
“Three bombs exploded first time. Second time, when the bomber returned after 5 minutes from the opposite direction, there were 3 more blasts. But, the third time, bombs exploded with a parachute effect, like an auto explosion,”  said the head of the camp of the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) that came under indiscriminate attack by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in the early hours of Saturday. Many children fled into the jungle during the five-minute window before the aircraft returned for the second attack. If not for the fast action of Ketheeswaran, the head of the settlement, and Pulendran, an intrepid IDP, in escorting and moving IDPs away from the refugee camp, the cluster bombs would have wrought havoc killing many, according to the refugees who escaped. TamilNet interviewed both Ketheeswaran and Pulendran, and several wounded civilians for this feature.
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Floods kill 6 people in Vanni, thousands displaced

[TamilNet, Friday, 28 November 2008, 17:21 GMT]
At least four people were reportedly killed and two more feared dead in the floods caused by storms coupled with torrential monsoon rain during the past 6 days in Vanni. The sluice gates of Visuvamadu tank were opened as the raising water level posed great danger to the wall of the dam that has been shaken already by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) attacks. Also the sluice gates of two other tanks, Udaiyaarkadduk-ku'lam and Kalmaduk-ku'lam, were opened. Hundreds of volunteers of Tamils Rehabilitation Organiation (TRO) and the Tamileelam Police personnel were seen evacuating civilians and in arranging immediate accommodation in public places.
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Vanni irrigation bunds close to breach, threaten 10,000 IDPs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 November 2008, 05:03 GMT]
Increasing water levels due to non-stop rain the past five days, and the earth bunds critically weakened to withstand water pressure in several irrigation tanks, including Visuvamadu and Udaiyaarkaddu in Vanni, are posing increasing danger to populated neighborhoods and closeby temporary shelters of internally displaced, civil society sources in Vanni said. More than 10,000 IDPs are being relocated throughout Vanni due to the threat posed by flood waters, according to local officials.
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Thousands of IDPs stranded by floods in Vanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 November 2008, 18:50 GMT]
Floods are flowing over most of the roads and civilians who had sought refuge in open lands and in temporary huts in low-lying areas were forced to seek shelter in schools, temples, churches and public buildings in Vanni. Patients from Ki’linochchi and Mullaiththeevu district hospitals in need of urgent treatment in Vavniyaa hospital cannot be transported as the trunk roads in Vanni remain submerged in water.
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Colombo 'commissions' education for structural war on Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 24 November 2008, 13:28 GMT]
Beginning from curriculum, school textbooks, teachers, educational administrators and resources to the destruction of the existing educational infrastructure in the guise of war, the structural violence committed by the Sri Lankan state against Tamils has been condemned by the Trincomalee MP, Mr. Thurairetnasingam in a parliamentary debate on Friday. “An ethnicity can be devastated by the destruction of its education, and that’s what this government is bent on doing in the North and East”, said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, while exposing the short term and long term ‘conspiracies’ of the Colombo government in ruining the education of Tamils.
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2 STF commandos killed, 2 injured in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 November 2008, 22:58 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched an attack on the Special Task Force (STF) sentry post located in Koappaave'li in Karadiyanaa'ru police division in Batticaloa district Thursday around 9:30 a.m, killing two STF commandos and seriously injuring two.
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Unidentified men shoot, injure 2 Tamil farmers in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 November 2008, 12:55 GMT]
Two Tamil farmers were critically injured when unidentified persons waiting in ambush at a point along Chaaththirikoozhangku'lam - Kalmadu road fired at them while they were returning from their paddy fields Saturday evening in Eechchangku'lam area in Vavuniyaa police division, sources said.
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Tamil trader shot dead in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 November 2008, 23:34 GMT]
Unidentified armed men shot dead a 70-year old Tamil trader inside his shop at point blank range Friday night at Kalmadu village in Vavuniyaa police division. The victim owned the shop located in Poompukaar, a suburb of Vavuniyaa.
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Police arrests 2 Tamils in Vaazhaicheanai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 November 2008, 07:22 GMT]
Vaazhaicheanai police arrested two elderly Tamil men Wednesday in a cordon and search conducted in Kalmadu area in Vaazhaicheanai police division in Batticaloa district. Police claimed that an SLA uniform and cap were recovered in the search from the house of the arrested persons. The search began at dawn and lasted until noon, sources in Vaazhaicheanai said.
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