Kfir bombers observed over Vanni

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 August 2006, 06:52 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bomber Kfir jets were observed over Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled Vanni territory Thursday around 1:00 p.m.
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Fierce fighting continues third day in Muttur

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 August 2006, 06:14 GMT]
Fierce fighting erupted between the Sri Lanka Army and LTTE fighters in Muttur town Thursday early morning following the deployment of hundreds of SLA troops from Trincomalee town. These troops were brought to Muttur by a landing craft of the Sri Lanka Navy Thursday early morning with air cover amid heavy artillery and mortar fire towards the LTTE territory in Muttur East, civil sources in Muttur said. Fierce fighting began after government troops landed at the Muttur jetty when large number of LTTE fighters in the Muttur started attacking the government troops with artillery and mortar preventing them from entering the town, the sources added.
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Claymore attack, artillery fire in Mannar

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 August 2006, 05:51 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) launched artillery fire from Thallady and Uyilankulam camps towards Parappankandal, 16 km southeast of Mannar town, after two SLA troopers were wounded in a Claymore attack around 6:45 a.m. Thursday. SLA troopers exchanged gunfire with the ambush-men and launched mortar and artillery fire. One civilian was wounded in artillery fire in Parappankandal. More than a 100 families from SLA controlled areas moved into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled territories following indiscrimate artillery fire.
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"Hundreds of Tigers" in Muttur - residents

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 19:18 GMT]
Intense fighting is underway in Muttur in Trincomalee district as hundreds of heavily armed LTTE cadres who have taken control of the town centre laid siege to four Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps on its periphery, residents said Wednesday evening. An effort by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to land reinforcements on Muttur jetty was routed by LTTE fighters battling SLN troops at one end, reports said. Sri Lanka’s military insisted however that the Army was in control of the town and that the ‘desperate’ LTTE was retreating before its counter-attack.
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Norway urges ‘cessation of hostilities’ and return to prior positions

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 17:32 GMT]
Peace facilitator Norway Wednesday said that the intensive military operations by the LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka had resulted in ‘deadlock’ and could easily escalate the armed conflict. The first statement issued by Oslo comes one week after Sri Lanka’s military began to advance into LTTE controlled areas and on the day the LTTE launched a major counter-offensive. It calls on both sides cease hostilities and withdraw to their prior positions. Norwegian Special Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer is to make a pre-scheduled visit to Sri Lanka Thursday despite the outbreak of hostilities, International Development Erik Solheim said.


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Muttur hospital closed down due to artillery fire

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 11:59 GMT]
Muttur district government hospital has been closed down as its maternity ward was hit by artillery fire, Wednesday afternoon. Medical officers, nurses, attendants and health workers fled from the hospital seeking safety, sources in Muttur said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Navy stationed in Trincomalee base stepped up its artillery and mortar fire towards Muttur east villages, from 4 p.m, Wednesday. The Tigers also reported to have fired artillery shells towards the SLN base in Trincomalee.
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8-year-boy killed in mortar fire in Muttur church, 3 wounded

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 10:36 GMT]
An 8-year-old boy was killed on the spot and 3 women were wounded in Muttur town when an artillery fell inside the premises of St. Anthony's Church where more than 600 Tamils have taken refuge since the fighting broke out between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last night. The wounded women, unable to be taken to hospital, were being treated at the church as the fighting resumed after a brief lull, civilian sources said.
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LTTE says operations ‘to defend civilians’

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 06:53 GMT]
The LTTE said Wednesday that its recent military activities in Trincomalee, including the operation against Sri Lankan military camps in the early hours were intended to disrupt Sri Lanka’s indiscriminate onslaught against Tamil civilians. The LTTE’s military spokesman, I. Ilanthirayan, said that amid the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian areas by the Sri Lankan armed forces as part of their offensive in the Mavil Aru region, there was an "urgent humanitarian need" that had compelled what he described as "defensive actions."
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Raising Tiger flag not illegal in US - Embassy

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 03:00 GMT]
Staff at Sri Lanka state-run daily in Colombo, Daily News, were given a civic lesson when they confronted US Embassy's press officer, Evan Owen, on the legality of American Tamils hoisting the Tamileelam flag in a New York sports festival, and diaspora parents teaching their offsprings Tamil. The press officer responded that hoisting of the Tiger flag had not breached US law, and that "the right to assemble and freedom of speech is upheld," by their [US] constitution, the Daily news reported.
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Tigers overrun four SLA camps in Trincomalee, enter Muttur

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 August 2006, 02:35 GMT]
Fighting formations of the Liberation Tigers have overrun four key locations in Trincomalee district after fierce artillery shelling since 2:00 a.m. Wednesday. Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camps in Kaddaiparichchan, Palathoppu, Pachchanoor and Mahindapura have been overrun, civilian sources said. Heavily armed LTTE fighters were seen entering Muttur town. Military sources in Colombo remained tightlipped and declined to comment on the ground situation. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets continued to bomb LTTE controlled Sampoor area. Fierce fighting is also reported near Kallaru where attempt by SLA forces to capture the Mavil Aaru sluice gates was averted, according to initial reports.
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Military offensive 'disrupted deal with LTTE’

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 21:42 GMT]
Sri Lankan military’s offensive in Trincomalee disrupted an agreement which had been reached with the Liberation Tigers to open the closed irrigation canal at Mavil Aaru, the Daily Mirror quoted the Chief Priest of a local Buddhist temple as saying. The ongoing confrontation which has claimed scores of lives could have been avoided, the venerable Saranakeerthi Serunuwera Thera also said. His comments comes days after the chief international truce monitor criticized the Sri Lankan government for launching airstrikes near where he was negotiating with local LTTE leaders to defuse the situation.
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Tamil Americans protest in front of US Capitol

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 09:37 GMT]
More than two hundred American Tamils from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka held a protest in the West Front park of US Capitol building Monday between 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. urging the US Government to take action against Colombo for its war crimes against the Northeast Tamils. The rally also remembered the civilians killed in the Black July 1983 pogrom against Eelam Tamils.
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Tamil youth shot dead in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 06:51 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed an 18-year-old internally displaced Tamil boy, when he was driving a land master tractor along Akkaraipattu Sagamam road Tuesday around 8:30 a.m.
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Tamil youth shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 06:00 GMT]
Unidentified men Monday night around 10:00 p.m. shot dead a Tamil youth Kaliyuganathan Geethansan, 22, at Abeyapura, suburb in Trincomalee town. Men went in motorbike called him out of the house and shot him in the head, police sources said.
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Canberra Tamils hold remembrance event for Black July 1983 victims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 August 2006, 00:10 GMT]
Canberra Tamil diaspora, Saturday commemorated the thousands of Tamils who lost their lives and property in the Sri Lankan state sponsored July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, by holding a vigil at the Uniting Church auditorium in Canberra, the Australian capital city. The vigil began with the Australian National anthem followed by a one minute silence as a mark of respect for the victims of the massacre and the thousands of Tamil men, women, and children who lost their lives in the Sri Lankan war on the traditional Tamil homelands in the north and east.
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Tamil exclusion from ADB project triggered dispute - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2006, 12:56 GMT]
The ‘water’ dispute cited by the government of Sri Lanka as justification for its military offensive this week began two weeks ago due to a refusal by Colombo to implement that part of an ADB-funded project which would supply drinking water to Tamils in LTTE-controlled areas and to go ahead with supply to Sinhala colonies in government-controlled areas, the LTTE said in a statement. The intention of the Sri Lankan airstrikes last week was to prevent international ceasefire monitors from meeting local Tamils protesting their exclusion from the ADB project, the LTTE Peace Secretariat said.
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Two Sinhalese men shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2006, 10:30 GMT]
Two Sinhalese persons were shot dead by unidentified men in Trincomalee in two separate killings Monday. The first shooting incident took place around 10.30 a.m. at Love Lane, and the second around noon at Chelvanayagapuram, suburbs of east port town, police sources said.
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Three pronged SLA offensive thwarted - LTTE

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2006, 07:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) began moving ground troops through three fronts from two SLA bases towards Mavil Aaru sluice gate Monday morning, supported by Multi - Barrel Rocket Launchers, artillery fire and aerial bombardment from Kfir and MIG jets towards Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled area in Mavil Aaru. The SLA advance was thwarted by the Tigers, according to Ilanthirayan, the military spokesman of the Tigers. Three LTTE cadres were killed and two wounded, Mr. Ilanthirayan said. Meanwhile, informed defence sources in Colombo said 12 SLA troopers including two SLA officials were kiled and many wounded. The SLA initiated operation has threatened the Ceasefire Agreement.
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Slain Tiger officials, rural force member buried with military honours

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2006, 05:06 GMT]
The funeral of seven members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and a civilian rural force member killed in Sri Lanka Air Force SLAF air strike on LTTE's Thenham Conference Centre on Saturday, were held Sunday evening. LTTE commanders Col. Banu and Col Jeyam were present at Thandiyadi Heroes Cemeteray where five were burried with military honours.
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New York Tamils hold sports festival for children

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 July 2006, 00:50 GMT]
The Arts and Cultural branch of the World Tamil Organization in New York held its Ninth annual children's sports festival at the Jamaica High School sports facilities in Jamaica New York Saturday starting from 10:00 a.m. More than 200 children from Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and New Jersey areas took part in the festival, organizers said.
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