Sri Lanka attacks hospital, settlements in Vanni, children among victims

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 15:00 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked civilian settlements in Mu'l'livaaykkaal village Friday morning and in the noon causing injuries to 11 civilians, including 6 children, according to medical sources in Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital. A 13-year-old girl was seriously injured. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has also fired artillery shells on Mullaiththeevu General Hospital injuring two members of the medical staff and caused extensive damage to the complex including the operation theatre.
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Claymore attack injures 2 SLA soldiers in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 06:34 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a Claymore attack Thursday around 8:00 p.m, seriously injuring two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers engaged in road patrol at Murakkoddaancheanai in Ea’raavoor police division in Batticaloa district, LTTE officials in Batticaloa said.
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Police arrest 7 Tamils in Ea’raavoor

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 December 2008, 03:24 GMT]
Ea’raavoor police arrested seven civilians on suspicion Wednesday morning in their division in a cordon and search launched jointly with Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Aiyangkea’ni, Tha’lavaay area in Batticaloa district, Ea’raavoor police said.
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Eastern University students clash with police during protest fast

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 13:27 GMT]
Eastern University students observing a protest fast in the university campus Thursday around 9:00 a.m. against the detention of two fellow students, raised strong objections when two Sri Lanka Intelligence officials who had come with the police tried to video film the protesters, sources in Batticaloa said. When the students tried to expel the two officials, police who had accompanied them opened fire on the ground, the protesting students said. The police, however, claimed that one of their men’s gun had accidently gone off.
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2 SLA soldiers killed, 2 injured in Vaakarai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 13:17 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launched a grenade attack Wednesday around 7:30 p.m on a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry post in Vaakarai police division in Batticaloa district killing two soldiers and seriously injuring two, LTTE officials in Batticaloa said. The four soldiers were in the sentry post in Thaddumunai in Vaakarai when the attack took place.
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Robert Blake: U.S. 'development' doesn't seek majoritiarian inroads to East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 09:35 GMT]
Responding to an article that appeared in TamilNet on U.S. enthusiasm in 'developing East' to link it with markets in Western province, ignoring the Tamil perspectives on development, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, in an article that appeared in U.S. Embassy's blog has defended that the U.S. development program has a goal of "fostering economic development, good governance and stability while preserving the existing ethnic balance in the east." Disagreeing with the perspective shed by the Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarian Ariyanethran, the U.S. Ambassador says that meaningful development can take place in the East before a political solution is agreed upon.
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SLA, LTTE clashes continue in Northern Front

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 December 2008, 07:51 GMT]
Clashes between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) erupted again Wednesday around 4:00 a.m. along Ki'laali and Mukamaalai Front Defence Lines (FDL) and lasted till 10:00 a.m. Artillery duels raged while LTTE launched shells fell and exploded in SLA High Security Zone in Mirusuvil and Usan in Thenmaraadchi where many SLA bases and camps are located. Details of casualties or injuries are not available.
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India, US, UK, Pakistan officers visit Vanni command HQ

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 16:16 GMT]
Military representatives from seven countries – India, the United States, Britain, Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh and Maldives – Wednesday visited the Sri Lankan military command centre coordinating Colombo’s offensive into the Vanni. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence said the foreign defence attaches/advisors visited the Vann Security Forces HQ as well as the HQs of the SLA’s 57 and 59 Divisions.
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SLAF bombs refugee settlements: 2 killed, 13 wounded, 4 child victims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 02:30 GMT]
A 5-month-old child and a 25-year-old male were killed and 13 other refugees including three children were wounded Wednesday when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets bombed refugee settlements in Vaddakkachchi four times, on each sorties bombing the refugees twice. The SLAF bombardment on civilian targets comes in the wake of high casualties to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in its latest offensive push in Ki'linochchi and Jaffna frontiers. The second attack was reported 250 meters near the hospital in Vaddakkachchi. Civilians in Vanni interpreted the indiscriminate attacks, which were repeatedly carried out on displaced peoples settlements, as 'collective punishment' by the Sri Lankan forces that have suffered heavy casualties in the battlefront.
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SLA death toll hits 170 in Vanni, hundreds wounded, 36 bodies recovered - LTTE

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 December 2008, 02:08 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) officials on Wednesday said that 130 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed in the multi-front offensive push by the SLA in Ki'linochchi on Tuesday. More than 300 soldiers were wounded in the heavy battle that raged throughout the day till 4:00 p.m. on five main localities and along a wide stretch of the frontiers in Ki'linochchi. Meanwhile, in Ki'laali, 40 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 120 sustained injuries. 36 dead bodies of the SLA soldiers have been recovered so far, 28 in Ki'linochchi and 8 in Ki'liaali, in the clearing missions following Tuesday's fighting. There are young recruits of the SLA, including child soldiers, engaged in the front by the SLA in Ki'linochchi.
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Maheswaran murder accused refused bail

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 17:07 GMT]
Colombo High Court Judge, Sunil Rajapakse, Monday refused bail for the accused in parliamentarian T.Maheswaran murder case, and fixed the inquiry for April 27th next year, legal sources in Colombo said. The accused Johnston Collin Valentine was produced in court under heavy security. Maheswaran was shot dead on January 1 morning this year while he was attending New Year prayer poojah in Colombo Ponnambalavaaneswarar Temple.
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SLA suffers third debacle in Ki'linochchi, 100 killed, 250 wounded - Puleedevan

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 16:51 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Tuesday repulsed a major push by the Sri Lanka Army, killing at least 100 SLA soldiers and causing injuries to more than 250, said S. Puleedevan, the director of LTTE's Peace Secretariat, quoting Tiger commanders who were in charge of the Tiger defensive fronts in Ki'linochchi district. "According to the emerging details, a multi-front push towards Ki'linochchi from Malayaa'lapuram, Kugnchupparanthan, Mu'rika'ndi and Pulikku'lam, was repulsed by the LTTE defensive formations that have seized weapons and recovered at least 10 corpses of the Sri Lanka Army," Mr. Puleedevan told TamilNet citing the military officials of the LTTE.
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Tigers recover 8 SLA bodies, seize 18 weapons in Ki'laali fighting

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 15:36 GMT]
Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) said Tuesday that they seized two Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) launchers, one AK-LMG, fourteen T-56 assault rifles and a 40 mm Grenade Launcher after repulsing an SLA-initiated offensive push that lasted for 9 hours from 1:20 a.m. Tuesday. The Tigers have earlier claimed that at least 40 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 120 sustained injuries. Information from Jaffna also indicates heavy casualties on SLA-side. The latest debacle of the SLA in Jaffna comes after a recent by the SLA commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka and the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Artillery duel in Northern Front, SLA closes roads to transport casualties in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 15:07 GMT]
Clashes between Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which began with an SLA offensive advance through Ki’aali Tuesday around 1:20 a.m continued through the day with artillery duels and gunfire exchanges, sources in Jaffna said. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopters were seen engaged in transporting casualties and injured soldiers while Kandy road and Palaali road were blocked several times during the day enabling ambulances to carry the dead and injured to Palaali SLA hospital. The SLA has suffered considerable loss of lives and injuries to many, sources close to SLA said.
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Themaraadchi residents flee shelling

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 14:20 GMT]
Residents of Mirusuvil and Usan areas in Thenmaraadchi fled from their houses when shells fired by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targeting the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) bases in the said areas fell and exploded, Tuesday around 5:00 a.m, according to civil sources in the area. The shelling began following the Tuesday clashes between the SLA and the LTTE.
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Elderly man killed by SLA field bike in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 14:06 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers riding a field bike knocked down an elderly man seriously injuring him Tuesday at Koa’ndaavil junction on Kaangkeasanthu’rai road in Jaffna. The elderly man was rushed to Jaffna Teaching Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, sources in Jaffna said.
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Fein responds: Professorial Nonsense on Stilts

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 12:35 GMT]
Responding to the note on Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) website by the Secretary General Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha on the model genocide indictment against Sri Lanka officials, the former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein, says, the "Professor never denies the Rajapaksa-Fonseka genocides," but, "delivers an indictment against the LTTE as a purported defense to the Rajapaksa-Fonseka genocides." Fein adds: "The genocide prosecution sought against Sudanese President Omar Bashir has rejected such a defense theory to a charge of genocide."
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SLA soldier’s body recovered from well in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 10:43 GMT]
Chaavakachcheari police recovered the body of a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier from a well close to the SLA camp in Meesaalai in Chaavakachcheari, on being informed by SLA officials. Police are investigating into the cause of death of the victim, sources in Chaavakachcheari said on Monday.
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SLA push thwarted in Ki'laali, 40 killed - LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 December 2008, 10:30 GMT]
More than 40 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and at least 120 soldiers wounded Tuesday morning when the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) repulsed an offensive push by the SLA along the Forward Defence Line in Ki'laali, Tiger officials in Vanni told TamilNet. The LTTE has claimed to have seized weapons and recovered dead bodies of the SLA.
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Police detain 8 Tamil youths in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 December 2008, 17:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and police, assisted by paramilitary men, arrested eight Tamil youths in a joint cordon and search conducted Sunday night in Kokkaddichchoalai, Batticaloa town, Kaaththaankudi and Ea’raavoor police divisions. More than 900 houses were searched while nearly 4000 persons were interrogated during the operation, police media spokesman said.
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