Heavy fighting breaks out in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 18:25 GMT]
Explosions were heard inside Palaly airbase Wednesday night and heavy fighting was reported at many points of Forward Defence Line (FDL) positions in Jaffna from 6:00 p.m. Flares to illuminate the night sky were seen above the Palaly military base area, and Tiger artillery shells began hitting the base Wednesday night after the explosions ceased, according to initial civilian reports.
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Vavuniya, Trinco observe hartal, mourning day for massacred children

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 08:20 GMT]
General shut down and the day of mourning day was observed in the districts of Vavuniya and Trincomalee Wednesday condemning the massacre of about sixty one children in Puthukudiruppu Sencholai children home in Mullaitivu district by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), killing of seventeen workers of French NGO in Muthur by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and indiscriminate killing of Tamil civilians in the North East by the State armed forces, sources said.
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Canada expresses concern over Escalation of Hostilities in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 05:01 GMT]
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Peter MacKay, in a statement on Tuesday expressed concern regarding the escalation of hostilities in Sri Lanka. Canadian Tamils held a rally in front of his ministry in the capital Ottawa, demanding immediate action by Canada, on Monday, after Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed the Sencholai children home in Mullaithivu where tens of teenage school girls were killed and more than a hundred wounded.
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Tamils protest against SL Government and SLA

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 20:13 GMT]
Tamil residents of Batticaloa and Amparai districts, observed a one day Hartal (general shutdown) and a day of mourning Monday to condemn the Sri Lanka Government and the Sri Lanka Army for discriminating and repressing the Tamils in the region, civil society sources in Batticaloa said. Hartal was also intended to draw the attention of the international community to the desperate plight of the Tamils in the East, the organisers of the Hartal said.


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Newspaper delivery agent shot and killed in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 13:40 GMT]
Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army fired at a delivery van of the Uthayan, the Tamil daily published in Jaffna district, at Puthur junction near Atchchuveli Tuesday around 11:00 a.m, killing the newspaper agent. The delivery van was on it's way after distributing parcels of Uthayan Tuesday issue during the relaxation period of curfew, civil sources said. The curfew in Valikamam sector was relaxed between 10:00 a.m. and 01:00 p.m. In Vadamaradchi sector, the curfew was lifted from noon till 03:00 p.m.
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Tiger artillery hits Palaly control tower

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 13:12 GMT]
At least three Tiger artillery shells have hit the runway and the control tower area at Palaly military airbase Tuesday morning, a military source confirmed on condition of anonymity.
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SLA relaxes ban for government servants to enter Wanni

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 12:23 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has agreed to open Vavuniya-Omanthai check point for limited hours to enable public servants to report for works in government offices located in LTTE held Wanni, according to Vavuniya Government Mr.C.Shanmugam.
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Explosions in Palaly military base, SLAF aircrafts grounded

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 10:43 GMT]
Artillery shells from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam positions continued to hit the Palaly military base with irregular intervals Monday night and Tuesday morning, civilian sources in Valikamam said. Civilians who heard the sound of an aircraft circling above the Palaly airbase Tuesday around 6:00 a.m., said there were no indications of the aircraft landing, as shells began hitting the base simultaneously.
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Day of mourning for teenagers killed in airstrike

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 09:50 GMT]
Tamils in the Vanni Tuesday mourned the 61 teenage schoolgirls killed in Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombing Monday. Urging the international community to condemn the attack, the Tamileelam Students Association (TSA) said “there are no words strong enough to condemn the Sri Lankan government’s pre-meditated massacre of innocent school girls in a peaceful learning environment”
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US expresses sympathies to Colombo victims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 09:39 GMT]
The United States Embassy in Colombo Tuesday said it condemned the slaying of Ketheshwaran Loganathan, the Deputy Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat of the Government of Sri Lanka, and expressed sympathies to families of those who perished in Monday's attack on the Pakistani High Commissioner's motorcade in Colombo.
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Killed students, participants of leadership workshop - Ilankumaran

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 22:33 GMT]
The Director of Tamileelam Educational Board, V. Ilankumaran, in an interview to TamilNet Monday said that the schoolgirls killed and injured in Monday's Kfir attack were participants in a 10-day residential "Leadership, Self-Awareness and First Aid workshop." More than 400 G.C.E. A/L students from 18 different schools in Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu, and Oddusuddan Educational Zones, and selected girls from other educational organisations took part in the annual programme, Mr. Ilankumaran said. According to the timetable of the course, 7:00 a.m. on Monday, the time the air-strike took place, was the time of morning-assembly.
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SLA closing down small camps in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 18:48 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers are closing down several small camp-houses in the Jaffna peninsula and withdrawing into stronger camps Monday, sources in the northern peninsula said.
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Sri Lankan government orders closure of schools one week ahead

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 18:46 GMT]


Sri Lanka's Education Ministry Monday ordered that all schools in the island should be closed from Tuesday till August 27. The reason given by the ministry for the closure is in connection with the South Asian Games which is to commence on August 18 in Colombo. Schools are to be reopened for the third term on August 28, according to the new directive, Education Ministry sources said.
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Airstrike damaged Palaly communications

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 18:34 GMT]
Communication facilities at the Sri Lankan military base complex at Palaly were damaged when an unidentified aircraft fired rockets at the airbase Friday night, a military source said Monday. LTTE artillery fire has separately damaged the runway at the sprawling base complex and as such "no planes have taken off or landed since Friday," the source added.
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ITRO condemns SLAF attack on "Peace Village" with 5 orphanages

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 13:42 GMT]
Chencholai Valaham is the campus among the orphanages at the Peace Village of Vallipunam, said the International Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (ITRO London), the representative body of the overseas offices of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation in a press statement condemning the Sri Lanka Air Force bombing that killed 61 schoolchildren and wounded more than 129. "The area is well known by all parties: the Government of Sri Lanka, the Government Agent, ICRC, UNICEF and all those who work in the Vanni," the organisation said urging the international community to condemn the bombing.
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Number of Jaffna civilians injured by SLA shelling rises to 99

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 12:32 GMT]
Additional 41 civilians seriously injured by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling from Palaly military base towards areas in Jaffna islets from Allaipiddy to Mankumban, were taken to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Monday by Jaffna branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC), hospital sources said. 54 injured rescued Sunday and the 4 injured helped by the SLRC on Saturday, bring the total injured admitted to the Jaffna Hospital during the last three days to 99, civil society sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA closes all gateways to LTTE controlled Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 10:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Saturday evening closed all the entry points to and from LTTE controlled areas in Batticaloa District, with the exception of the A-15 highway which links Trincomalee and Batticaloa, sources in Batticaloa said. All civilian traffic has been blocked, said sources.


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7 killed as Colombo bomb targets military convoy

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 08:18 GMT]
Seven persons, including four special commandos of Special Diplomatic Security Unit, providing VVIP escort to the vehicle of Pakistani High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, were killed in a three-wheeler explosion that targeted the military convoy in the heart of Colombo city, on Flower Road in Kolpity, Monday around 1:25 p.m. Pakistani Ambassador was unhurt in the explosion, Police said.
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Curfew stays in most of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 05:50 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army, in it's radio broadcast from Palaly, announced Monday morning that the curfew in Jaffna would be lifted for short periods in some sectors of Jaffna. Te military had said the curfew would be eased in Vadamaradchi, Thenmaradchchi and the islets off Jaffna between 1:00 and 3.30 p.m. Monday, but now says the curfew will remain in place. In Valikamam sector, which includes Jaffna town, the curfew will be lifted between 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
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61 schoolgirls killed, 129 wounded in airstrike

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 August 2006, 04:15 GMT]
At least 61 schoolgirls were killed and 129 were wounded when Sri Lankan Kfir jets bombed a children's home compound in Mullaithivu district Monday morning where schoolgirls were attending a residential course on first aid, LTTE officials at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi said. Ambulances were rushing the wounded, many of whom are bleeding badly, to hospitals, sources said. Officials of the LTTE, briefing reporters in Kilinochchi, described the attack as “a horrible act of terror” by the Sri Lankan armed forces. UN’s child agency, UNICEF, and international truce monitors have visited the scene of the carnage.
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