Offensive for MSR thwarted -VoT

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 17:58 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers said this evening that they thwarted a two pronged operation by the Sri Lanka army (SLA) this afternoon to attack and overrun their defences on the A9 at Muhamaalai, about 14.5 kilometers south east of Chavakachcheri. They said that a main battle tank was destroyed and another damaged when their troops counter attacked the SLA. A South African 'Buffle' fitted with .50 heavy machine gun was also captured from the army in the battle they said.
Full story >>

War zone refugees arrive

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 13:32 GMT]
More than five thousand Tamils in the Pallai and Pachchilaipalli areas in Jaffna arrived at Kilali late this morning, Catholic church sources in the north said. Most of the civilians were blocked at Kilali by the Sri Lanka army. Only about 200 families were allowed until noon to proceed beyond Kilali to Mirusuvil. The Catholic church is the only organisation assisting the people arriving from the war zone, according to the Tamilnet correspondent who was at Kilali and Mirusuvil today.
Full story >>

Battles rage for MSR

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 08:58 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its morning news broadcast today that Tiger troops on the A9 highway north of the Elephant Pass garrison repulsed an operation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) yesterday to retake the sector of the road held by them now. The radio said that more than twenty SLA troops were killed in the fighting and that the Tigers had recovered weapons and equipment from the scene of the battle.
Full story >>

Gun positions threaten Pallai hospital

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 April 2000, 03:20 GMT]
The medical officer in charge of the Pallai hospital, Dr.Senthil Nanthan Ambikaipakan, said today that he cannot run the hospital anymore as doctors and other staff are scared to come and work there. He said that the immediate environs of the hospital have become a battle zone and therefore the institution has to be either closed immediately or it has to be taken over and run by a neutral humanitarian organisation. Meanwhile, patients who were brought to Jaffna from the Pallai hospital yesterday said that the Sri Lanka army (SLA) has moved several artillery positions into the environs of the hospital.
Full story >>

Civilians asked to leave battle zone

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 18:41 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam (LTTE) asked the people of the Pachchilaipalli division near the Elephant Pass garrison in Jaffna to leave their villages by tomorrow afternoon and move to safety in Kodikamam. The Tigers said that they will hold fire from 6 a.m. in morning to 2 p.m. in the afternoon tomorrow to facilitate the movement of people out of Pachchilaipalli.
Full story >>

Refugee crisis in Jaffna war zones

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 17:08 GMT]
Local officials and Catholic church sources said today that they are fast running out of rice gruel for more than 7500 persons displaced in the Pallai sector due to the fighting between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lanka army. They said there aren't funds or supplies to feed the people who fled the shelling in Pallai and Maasar, north of the Elephant Pass garrison, since Monday, March 27 as all civilian transport has come to a halt because of the fighting on the A9 highway and the interior between Pallai and Eluthumadduval.
Full story >>

Tigers take SLA uniforms, shoot soldiers

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 14:40 GMT]
Two gunmen, suspected to be Tigers, shot at a Sri Lanka army patrol last evening in Puthur in Jaffna, wounding two soldiers in the ensuing fire fight. A Policeman was shot dead around 4 p.m. today on Aadiyapaatham street in Kalviankaadu, near Jaffna town.
Full story >>

Pallai patient succumbs to injuries

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 13:53 GMT]
A seriously wounded civilian transferred today from Pallai to the Jaffna hospital died this evening. The woman, Rasalingam Sriranjani Rajeswary, was admitted to the Pallai hospital with severe injuries on March 28 when the fighting between the Sri Lanka army and the Liberation Tigers was raging in several sectors of the Thenmaradchi division.
Full story >>

Sea Tiger strategies concern SLA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 April 2000, 12:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has banned fishing in the Jaffna lagoon for three days amidst apprehensions about further amphibious operations by the Sea Tigers aimed at cutting off the army's current supply route to Elephant Pass. Fishermen who went to the Gurunagar jetty in Jaffna town to put out to sea this morning were turned back by the army.
Full story >>

Tigers, SLA brace for more

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 March 2000, 17:34 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers consolidated areas they captured on the peninsula's southeastern coast this week and the Sri Lankan army re-deployed troops from Maathagal and Varani to strengthen its defences in Thenmaradchi against the Unceasing Waves III offensive. The SLA, meanwhile, banned fishing again in the seas off the Vadamaradchi coast.
Full story >>

Nagar Kovil SLA counters barrage

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 March 2000, 08:02 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers opened up a barrage with artillery and mortars on the Sri Lanka army camp at Nagar Kovil on Jaffna's east coast last night. The bombardment began around 8 p.m. and went on until 3 a.m. this morning.
Full story >>

Pallai hospital seeks evacuation

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 March 2000, 04:54 GMT]
The Pallai hospital authorities appealed to the District Medical Officer of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate their patients to Jaffna town as they are facing a shortage of supplies due to the fighting since Sunday night.
Full story >>

Anti-mining protest in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 March 2000, 20:11 GMT]
Several hundred people picketed out side the Fort railway station in Colombo today, protesting against leasing of phosphate mines at Eppawela, in the north-central province, to foreign companies.
Full story >>

SLA releases casualty figures

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 March 2000, 13:40 GMT]
Eighty Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troops, including five officers have been killed and six hundred and thirteen, including thirty one officers, have been wounded in the fighting with the Liberation Tigers in the Jaffna peninsula since Sunday night said the Ministry of Defence in a press release Thursday afternoon.
Full story >>

Tigers pound Chavakachceri SLA

[TamilNet, Thursday, 30 March 2000, 12:39 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers bombarded the Sri Lanka army's 52-3 brigade in Thambuthottam near Chavakachcheri in Jaffna from this morning as hundreds of civilians continued to flee the battle zones in the Thenmaradchi division and the peninsula's southeastern coast. The SLA, meanwhile, vacated another camp at Karukkai on the Pt.Pedro Kodikamam road today.
Full story >>

Overrun base an elite brigade - VoT

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 March 2000, 19:59 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said in its night news broadcast that a brigade of the Sri Lanka army's elite 53 Division based in Thalaiyadi and its defences spread across fourteen kilometers were overrun by the Liberation Tigers today.
Full story >>

Heavy casualties in Thalaiyadi battle

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 March 2000, 11:06 GMT]
Over 100 Sri Lankan Army (SLA) troops and 25 Liberation Tigers were killed when the LTTE overran the Thalaiyadi-Marunthankerni-Chempianpattu base complex Wednesday, the organisation said in a press release from its London offices. The Tigers said heavy fighting was continuing in the Pallai area where the Main Supply Route to the SLA bases at Elephant Pass and Yakachchi from the Palali base complex had been de-linked.
Full story >>

Tigers overrun another coastal garrison

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 March 2000, 10:46 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army base at Thalaiyadi on Jaffna's southeastern coast was overrun by the Liberation Tigers this noon around 12.30 p.m. Civilians who fled the fighting today said that the Tigers are pressing on with their attack on the SLA camp at nearby Maruthankerni. A LTTE field commander directing operations in this sector told residents that the camp is expected to fall by evening today.
Full story >>

MSR remains breached

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 March 2000, 09:48 GMT]
The Main Supply Route (MSR) on the A9 highway (Kandy Road) to the Sri Lanka army (SLA) base complexes in Elephant Pass and Iyakkachchi remains cut off between Eluthumaddvaal and Pallai sources in Jaffna said. The Uthayan, the Tamil daily published in Jaffna, quoting Sri Lankan military sources, said that the army is continuing its attempt to bridge the gap in the MSR, breached and held by the Liberation Tigers from early Monday.
Full story >>

Tigers beef up strength on coast

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 March 2000, 18:20 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers who are currently based in Maamunai on Jaffna's southeastern coast said the large number of their special units that have been transported by sea from the Vanni will continue to mount the attack on the Thalaiyadi base and its forward positions in Vaththirayan.
Full story >>