Casualties rise as Jaffna battle rages

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 16:05 GMT]
Heavy fighting continued for the third day in the southern Jaffna peninsula, with both the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army troops using heavy artillery, official LTTE sources said Thursday. LTTE casualties on Friday night stood at 48 killed, they said. The SLA continued to suffer casualties as troops attempting to dig into a captured salient 1km inside the LTTE's defence lines near Eluthumadduval, the sources further said.
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Tigers recover 30 SLA bodies -VOT

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 April 2001, 03:23 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers recovered the bodies of thirty Sri Lanka army soldiers from the battlefield in Jaffna south, the Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast Friday. The radio denied a report by the Special Media Information Centre of the Sri Lankan government that the Sri Lanka Air Force bombed two busloads of its troopers behind the lines on Thursday. The VOT said that heavy fighting was raging in the southern parts of the peninsula for the third day.
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"Fierce fighting continues in southern Jaffna" - LTTE

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 16:12 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said in press release issued from their headquarters in the Vanni Thursday evening that fierce fighting continues in southern Jaffna. "More than 300 Sri Lankan army soldiers were killed and over 1200 injured in the ferocious fighting that continues for the second day in the southern sector of the Jaffna peninsula. The Government troops have suffered massive casualties as the combat formations of the Liberation Tigers offered stiff and determined resistance to the offensive assault launched by the Sri Lankan army", the statement said.
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Tigers step up counter fire on SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 13:21 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers directed heavy mortar and artillery counter barrages on the positions the SLA is trying to consolidate in the Muhamalai-Eluthumadduval sector in Jaffna Thursday. Civilian flights from Jaffna to Colombo operated by a company owned by the Sri Lanka Air Force was cancelled Thursday afternoon, sources in Jaffna said. Passengers who went to board the AN-28 at the Palaly military base this afternoon were turned back. "The SLAF is in urgent need of more flights for casualty evacuation and logistical runs", a member of a Tamil group working with the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna said. The state owned Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation called on civilians Thursday morning to donate blood for the wounded soldiers. Hospital sources in Colombo confirmed that at least 1100 wounded SLA soldiers have been flown out of Jaffna for treatment in civilian hospitals in the southern parts of the island, including the capital.
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More than 1000 SLA wounded in aborted offensive

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 April 2001, 06:37 GMT]
At least 1058 Sri Lanka army troops were wounded in Wednesday's massive onslaught against the positions of the Liberation Tigers in the Jaffna peninsulaís southern sector, military sources in Jaffna said. A large number of these were airlifted to government hospitals in Colombo and Anurudhapura. Many of the seriously wounded were also sent to the government general hospitals in Jayawardhanapura and Ragama near Colombo. Others have been admitted to provincial hospitals, according to medical sources. About 100 more are expected to be airlifted to Colombo later today for treatment, the sources added. Casualties started rising when several advancing SLA troop concentrations were hit by heavy artillery fire from the LTTEís gun positions in the rear, military sources in Jaffna said.
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Heavy SLA casualties in Jaffna fighting

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:11 GMT]
Heavy fighting between the Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops continued Wednesday night with both sides using heavy artillery, official LTTE sources said. Over 100 SLA troops have been killed and 400 wounded in 24 hours of pitch battle in the Kilaly-Eluthumadduval-Nagar Kovil axis, the sources said.
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ICRC outlines work in war zone

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:08 GMT]
"The present conflict should come to an end if the displaced living in camps and welfare centers in the Trincomalee district to return to their own villages", Mr. Daniel Shriber, Head of the Delegation of the International Committee of Red Cross in Trincomalee told a press briefing Wednesday. Answering a question he added, "The ICRC is not in a position to provide adequate security for resettled people in Kuchchaveli, Thiriyai villages in the north of Trincomalee district.
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Thamil Chelvan, Bishops discuss peace prospects

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 19:03 GMT]
The leader of the political wing of the Liberation Tigers, Mr.S.P Thamil Chelvan Wednesday welcomed the delegation of Sri Lanka's catholic Bishops who are on a peace mission in the Vanni Wednesday, church sources said. Mr. Thamil Chelvan met the bishops for two hours in Mallavi, they added. The Catholic Bishops are on a mission to the Vanni to discuss prospects for bringing about a peaceful settlement to Sri Lankaís ethnic conflict.
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SLA casualties in Jaffna fighting rise

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 14:37 GMT]
More than 400 Sri Lanka army soldiers were wounded in less than eight hours of fighting with the Liberation Tigers in Eluthumadduval and Kilali in Jaffna, military sources in the north said. Officials at government hospitals in Anuradhapura and Colombo said preparations are underway to receive more later this evening. The SLA spokesman, however, claimed that only 78 soldiers were wounded and 30 were killed. Op. Agni Khela I (Fire Flame), launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning, was the first phase of an ambitious plan by the SLA to retake JaffnaÌs southern sector and Elephant Pass, the strategic gateway to the peninsula which Tigers overran in April 2000.
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SLA operation slows as casualties mount

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 11:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army offensive south of Eluthumadduval and Kilaly slowed down this afternoon amid heavy resistance and counter fire by the Liberation Tigers, sources in Jaffna said. At least 84 SLA troopers were wounded and 28 killed in eight hours of fighting, military sources in the north said. Shelling continued in the Nagar Kovil sector.
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SLA offensive in Nagar Kovil, Eluthumadduval

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 04:21 GMT]
Heavy fighting erupted in Nagar Kovil and the Eluthumadduval area in Jaffna when Sri Lanka army troops attempted to push south along the coast around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, sources in the northern peninsula said. The SLA's thrust towards the coastal villages of Kudrappu and Maamunai and south of Eluthumadduval was met with heavy resistance from the Liberation Tigers, they added. Meanwhile, the army banned on all fishing in the Jaffna lagoon until further notice Tuesday evening.
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Sri Lanka vows to continue war

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 April 2001, 00:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunge Tuesday vowed to defeat the Liberation Tigers and safeguard the territorial integrity of the country, the state-owned Daily News reported Wednesday. Describing the LTTE as an "unprincipled terrorist organisation," she saluted Sri Lanka's military for "continuing to fight tooth and nail to wipe out the LTTE from the face of our dear motherland."
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SL Govt. insensitive to Tamil agony - Pararajasingham

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2001, 11:29 GMT]
“The Tamil people have totally lost faith in the Sri Lankan government. The Liberation Tigers observed a ceasefire unilaterally for four months because they felt that the Tamil people should not continue to suffer and to create a climate conducive for Norway’s peace efforts. By rashly rejecting their ceasefire and stubbornly refusing to reciprocate it, the government displayed its gross insensitivity to the agony of the Tamil people”, said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa, in a comment sent to the Tamil press Tuesday.
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Tigers say Colombo bent on war, call off ceasefire

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2001, 14:03 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in an official statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka, stated that the organisation had decided not to extend its unilaterally declared cease-fire that expires at midnight on the 24th April 2001. "We are compelled to make this painful decision as a consequence of the hard-line, intransigent attitude of the Sri Lankan government which has not only refused to reciprocate positively to our peace gesture but intensified land, sea and air attacks causing heavy casualties on our side. It has become impossible to contain the military assaults of the enemy with our self-restrained defensive tactics without resorting to counter-offensive operations. Under such dangerous conditions we can no longer sustain our self-imposed truce which the enemy has been exploiting to its own military advantage", the LTTE's statement said.
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Colombo set on war path say Tamil parties

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 15:52 GMT]
Tamil party leaders Sunday strongly condemned statements made by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka, that the war against the Liberation Tigers has begun and that his government will not declare a ceasefire again. “ The Prime minister’s pronouncement on Friday makes it amply clear that the Sri Lankan government is not interested in peace negotiations at all. The PM is a confidante of the President. His renewed belligerence shows that the government is on the war path again”, charged a spokesman for the alliance of ten Tamil parties.
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STF assaults widow for reporting sexual harassment

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 April 2001, 11:17 GMT]
A widow who reported sexual harassment a group Special Task Force (STF) commandos was severely assaulted by them and was admitted to the Batticaloa hospital Sunday morning. The woman, Mahendran Nageswary, 37, Saturday complained to an officer at the STF’s main camp at Karaithivu, 46 kilometres south of Batticaloa, that a group of STF commandos from Kaluwanchikudy were harassing her. The woman was beaten up by the STF personnel who had been intimidating when she returned home Saturday evening. The commandos beat up woman’s son too when he had tried to help his mother who had fallen on the ground unconscious, hospital sources said.
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Heavy shelling in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 April 2001, 18:21 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army launched an intense artillery and aerial attack Saturday on the positions of the Liberation Tigers in the southern Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna town said. Heavy artillery and multi-barrelled rocket launchers (MBRLs) targeted LTTE defences in the Eluthumadduval and Pallai areas, they said.
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SLA shells Batticaloa villages - residents

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 22:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers stationed at the 23-3 Brigade HQ in Batticaloa fired several rounds of shells towards the villages of Kannankudah, Thaandiyadi, Arasadithivy and Kokkaddicholai in the western hinterlands of the district Friday night residents said.
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Four LTTE boats sunk - Navy

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 April 2001, 10:37 GMT]
Gunboats of the Sri Lanka Navy intercepted and attacked a Sea Tiger supply convoy of the Mullaitivu coast Friday morning and a fierce battle ensued in which four LTTE boats were sunk, military officials said.
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Tigers slam wounding of US journalist

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 April 2001, 13:43 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers Thursday condemned the wounding Monday of an American journalist by Sri Lanka Army troops who opened fire on Marie Colvin's party as "an act of cowardice" and praised the correspondent's bravery in crossing into the Vanni to examine the situation there for herself. Ms. Colvin had crossed the lines back into government-held territory with the hope the SLA would honour its unilateral New-Year truce, the LTTE said in a statement issued in the Vanni.
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