Second bus bomb kills 15 in South, 40 wounded

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 09:35 GMT]
Another bus explosion was reported in South, claiming 15 lives, on Galle Road, at Seenigama in Meetiyagoda Police area in Galle District, 88 km southeast of Colombo Saturday around 2:20 p.m. More than forty civilians were wounded in the second explosion reported within 24 hours, according to Karapitiya hospital sources. Military officials in Colombo blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the bomb attacks in buses Friday and Saturday. LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthiryan denied the accusation as baseless accusations.
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SLA soldier, civilian killed in blasts in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 07:54 GMT]
A Sri Lanka Army soldier was killed in a claymore mine attack near Uduvil SLA camp, around 9 a.m., Saturday. The claymore was placed in front of a canteen run by the SLA, inside military high security zone, sources said. The Uduvil camp serves as the nerve center for SLA's intelligence operation in Jaffna district.
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Three Tamils shot dead in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 January 2007, 07:41 GMT]
Three civilians were found shot dead in Trincomalee Friday night. Their bodies were found Saturday morning with gunshot injuries, one at Chelvanayakapuram, about 2 km north of eastern port town and the other two at Allesgarden, where two Sri Lanka Navy sailors were wounded in a claymore attack Saturday. Uppuveli Police, conducting investigations into the killings said the victims, between the ages 19 and 30, were Tamils.
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SLAF bombs tsunami resettlement village in Mullaithivu

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 03:13 GMT]
Seven civilians were injured, ­two critically, when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Kfir jets bombed the tsunami resettlement village situated at 6th Mile Post, Alampil in Mullaithivu district around 7:15 a.m. Thursday, sources in Mullaithivu said. SLAF bombers have been targeting coastal areas in Mullaithivu for the third day.
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Remains of Padahuthurai victims laid to rest

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 January 2007, 01:02 GMT]
Hundreds of civilians, religious leaders and civil representatives bade farewell to 13 of the 16 civilian victims killed Tuesday in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombardment at the Mother Velankanni Church at Nochchikuda, Wednesday, sources in Mannar said.
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MP urges UN to persuade Colombo on safe-haven

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 January 2007, 06:57 GMT]
Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian, S. Jeyanandamoorthy, has urged Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, to prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to declare a safe-haven in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) besieged Vaharai region, for the protection of the civilians from artillery, multi-barrel rocket attacks, and aerial bombardment from the Sri Lankan forces. Government of Sri Lanka has earlier rejected the call to declare a humanitarian zone encompassing the Vaharai hospital and the surrounding areas for the protection of the civilians in Vaharai.
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Attacks against SLA in Jaffna continue

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 23:18 GMT]
Unidentified persons lobbed a hand grenade Tuesday around 7:30 p.m on the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) sentry post located near Arasady junction in Nallur, Jaffna, and in a separate incident Wednesday unidentified armed men opened fire on the SLA camp near Udupiddy junction in Vadamaradchi at 6:00 p.m, sources in Jaffna said. Information on SLA injuries are not available.


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One killed, three injured, three missing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 22:48 GMT]
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a young woman around 7:00 a.m. Wednesday at Pt. Pedro, sources in Vadamaradchy said. In three other separate incidents in Jaffna three civilians were seriously injured in gunfire and knife attacks by unknown gunmen. Three youths were also reported missing in Kulappitty junction after being questioned by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers.
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UN deeply concerned at civilian casualties in Sri Lankan bombardment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 January 2007, 06:52 GMT]
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Margareta Wahlström, in a statement issued Tuesday, said the aerial bombardment on Iluppaikadavai in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlled Mannar district, by the Sri Lanka Air Force, killing civilians including children, was a "source of deepest concern." The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also remained concerned about deteriorating livelihoods on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka as well as all those who have been displaced in the country, the statement said.
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Aerial attack on Padahuthurai, a crime against humanity - Bishop

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 10:22 GMT]
The Bishop of Mannar Diocese, Rt Rev Rayappu Joseph, who visited Padahuthurai hamlet, which was completely destroyed by indiscriminate aerial bombardment by the Sri Lanka Air Force Tuesday morning, has condemned the bombardment and said the attack had destroyed the settlement of the Internally Displaced persons. There was no military installation of the LTTE in the area, the Bishop told media. The Bishop, calling the bombardment "a crime against humanity," urged the International Community to send independent observers to NorthEast. Death toll has risen to 15, including 7 children below age nine , a pregnant woman, her child and husband.
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14 civilians killed, 35 wounded in aerial bombardment

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 January 2007, 05:29 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force bombers Tuesday morning bombed more than 25 houses, killing at least 14 civilians, including 6 children, and seriously wounding 35 civilians at the coastal hamlet of Padahuthurai in Iluppaikadavai, 24 km northwest of Mannar town. Medical staff at two local hospitals in the area, Mulankavil and Pallamadu, were struggling to transport the seriously wounded, as an ambulance rushed from Mannar hospital, was blocked by Sri Lanka Army soldiers manning the Uyilankulam entry point.
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4 civilians killed in Amparai

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 23:45 GMT]
Four bullet ridden bodies of abducted civilians, two in the nearby jungle area and two near the Post Office, were recovered by Police Monday evening in Damana in Amparai district, sources in Amparai said.
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Battle for Vaharai

[TamilNet, Monday, 01 January 2007, 11:35 GMT]
Vaharai, a large backwater on Sri Lanka’s east coast, is an area with large fertile fields, lagoons and virgin forests in the northern part of the Batticaloa district. More than 15,000 residents and IDPs are now trapped in Vaharai as the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) conducts its brutal campaign to evict Tamils from the region, closing A-15 the main access road to the town, and imposing economic embargo, while Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfirs fly bombing raids terrorizing the civilians to flee. "They [LTTE] won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview Friday.
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SLAF Kfir jets bomb Vaharai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 21:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) kfir jets flew four bombing sorties over Puliyankandalady in Vaharai in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory, Saturday around 9:00 a.m, forcing the civilians who had sought safety in the Vaharai hospital to flee in panic, seeking safety inside bunkers, sources from Vaharai said.


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Six civilians disappear in Jaffna last week

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 16:14 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers and collaborating paramilitaries have abducted six civilians in the Jaffna district between 24th December, and 30th December according to complaints filed at the Jaffna Human Rights Commission (HRC), civil society sources in Jaffna said. The disappearances and arrests in Jaffna have escalated to alarming proportions in the last few months as part of the counter-insurgency campaign mounted by Colombo on the civilian population in the district, according to rights officials in Jaffna.
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MP slams aerial bombardment on water refinery

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 December 2006, 10:37 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), in its latest bombing raids in Vaharai on Thursday, completely destroyed a water refinery constructed by the UN agencies to remedy the drinking water shortage in the area near Verugal Murugan temple, charged S. Jeyanandamoorthy, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian from Batticaloa. In a press communiqué issued on Friday, the MP said: "the bombardment on the water refinery is not only a Ceasefire violation but is a human rights violation and a war crime too."
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De-populating Sampoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 December 2006, 23:21 GMT]
Indian state owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Colombo, on Friday, amid protests from Tamil parliamentarians who are voicing concerns that the Coal-Fired Power Plant project in Sampoor has a hidden political agenda to permanently evict Tamils from the Muthur east region. Around 30,000 Tamils were forced to leave the southern Trincomalee region into Vaharai when Sri Lanka military launched a major offensive and captured Sampoor from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in September.
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Two SLA troopers injured by LTTE fire in Vaharai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 11:25 GMT]
Two Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers from the Kadjuwathe SLA camp were seriously injured when the Liberation Tigers retaliated to the intensive mortar and artillery barrage launched by the SLA from its camps at Mankerny, Kadjuwathe and Valaichenai Paper Factory on Vaharai area in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territory, Wednesday from 7:30 a.m until 11:00 a.m, sources from Vaharai said.


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Two youths abducted in Valaichenai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 December 2006, 11:06 GMT]
Unidentified armed men abducted two youths displaced from Vaharai area, from their relatives house at Union Colony, Valaichenai in Batticaloa district, Tuesday around 9:30 p.m police said. The two abducted youths were forcibly taken away by the armed men who said the youths have to be interrogated, police added.
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Five of 19 abductees surrender to Eravur Police

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 December 2006, 14:47 GMT]
Five of the 19 passengers abducted by Karuna paramilitary cadres from the Saravana Travels private bus on its way from Kathankudy to Colombo on December 20 at Korakalimadu in Eravur police division in Batticaloa, escaped Monday evening, and surrendered Tuesday at Eravur police station.


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