Sri Lankan forces step up deployment, rehearsals in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 June 2008, 17:20 GMT]
The three armed forces of Sri Lanka have jointly stepped up patrol on land and sea areas in Vadamaraadchi north and east as well as in Jaffna lagoon since Thursday besides conducting large scale war rehearsals in areas close to Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Palaali High Security Zone (HSZ), sources in Jaffna said. The SLA seems to be engaged in active preparations for a major offensive in the coming days, residents in Vadmaraadchi said.

Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicopters from Palaali SLA military complex have been flying patrol rounds morning and evening, covering the seas of Vadamaraadchi north and east as well as over the Jaffna lagoon since Thursday.

The patrol flights are carried out in addition to the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) gun boats already engaged in their customary patrolling of the above mentioned areas.

Meanwhile, SLA since Thursday has been conducting large scale war rehearsals using artillery, mortar and gun fire in the areas of Vazhalaay, Idaikkaadu and Tho'ndamanaa’ru lagoon that lie close to the SLA Palaali HSZ.

Nonstop, deafening artillery and machine gun fire, day and night, have been reverberating in the areas around Vadamaraadchi and Palaali for the last two days, according to the residents.