Church heavily damaged in SLAF bombing - Radio

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 November 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers (VOT) said this morning that the Sri Lankan Air force Kfir jets had bombarded the areas of Mankulam where civilians live yesterday. A church was heavily damaged and several houses were destroyed in the Kfir attack the radio said.

The VOT added that the Liberation Tigers had attacked Jayasikurui's forward positions east of Kanakarayan Kulam and northeast of Mankulam yesterday with heavy mortar and artillery fire.

Meanwhile other reports from Vavuniya town said that the SLA had launched a heavy barrage of LTTE positions ahead of Op. Jayasikurui's current Forward Defence Localities (FDL) since yesterday.

The shelling continued through the night and there has been frequent SLAF flights in and out of the Jayasikurui areas said sources in Vavuniya.

These sources speculated that the SLA barrage might be preparatory for the commencement of the third phase of Op. Jayasikurui.

Meanwhile the VOT yesterday gave the names of seven Tigers who were killed in fierce fighting near the SLA positions east of kanakarayan Kulam.

Six of them are from Batticaloa and one from Ampara.