SLA artillery in sea battle - residents

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A clearer picture of the sinking of the two Sri Lankan navy vessels emerged this afternoon with first hand reports of eye witnesses on the Pt. Pedro coast seeping through to Jaffna town.
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Eleven Tigers killed in naval battle

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers gave a detailed account in the Vanni this evening about the sea battle between the Sea Tigers and a large Sri Lankan navy (SLN) convoy, which began last evening and lasted until the early hours of the morning today.
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Education official arrested in the North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Department of Education Co-ordinator between the SLA controlled areas and the LTTE controlled areas of the Vanni, Mr. Mylvaganam Sivagurunathan, 53, was arrested on Friday by the Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of the Sri Lankan Police.
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Civilians languish in Mannar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
More than 2000 civilians are languishing in the open exposed elements in the village of Pallamadu in Mannar, as the Sri Lankan Army is refusing them permission to travel through the entry point to the areas controlled by it, at Uyilankulam junction, which lies 9 km west of Mannar, on the Vavuniya - Mannar road.
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Lukewarm response to amnesty offer

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Despite the fresh amnesty offered by the Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunge to the SLA deserters, few are returning to their units, forcing the government further to extend the amnesty to February 25.
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Soldiers escape grenade explosion in Kodikamam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A grenade was lobbed by unidentified persons at 2 SLA soldiers at Kodikamam in Jaffna this morning at 11am. However, the SLA soldiers escaped unhurt as the grenades exploded about 3 meters from them.
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2 arrested in Velanai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A priest and a bus driver from the island of Punguduthivu off the Jaffna peninsula were detained by the SLA on Thursday said sources in Jaffna. The army in Velanai had asked both of them to report to its camp.
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Elderly home short of funds

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The head of the Kaithady government Home for the Aged in Jaffna told a government bureaucrat who visited the institution today that she cannot maintain the inmates with the forty rupees (70 US cents) daily allowance per person which the home now gets from the state.
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Tigers attack police patrol

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio service said in its night news bulletin today that the Liberation Tigers had successfully carried out an attack on a combined police and homeguard patrol yesterday in the Batticaloa district at Poochchikkoodu (near the 11th colony) without any losses on their side.
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Gurunagar civilians apprehensive

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Civilians who live by the shore, on Beach road in Gurunagar in Jaffna town, said that they do not sleep in their houses at night now as they fear clashes between the Liberation Tigers and the Sri Lankan army might erupt any day in the area.
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School heads punished for ignoring memo

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The heads of 23 Tamil schools, in the predominantly Tamil area of Ambagamuwa in the Nuwara Eliya District were denied their monthly salaries today for not answering a circular in Sinhala sent by the Education Department of the Central Provincial Council last year, said sources in Nuwara Eliya.
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Hindu ceremonies being organised

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The authorities in Jaffna are making arrangements to transport devotees to Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple for Mahasivaraththiri poojas on February 25, said temple sources in Keerimalai. Six buses will be used to transport devotees from Tellippalai on that day for poojas from 2:00 - 6:00 p.m.
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SLA trooper commits suicide

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
D. M Dassanayake (20), a soldier from the Sri Lanka Army's (SLA) 126 camp at Valaichenai, committed suicide last evening around 5.30 p.m., said sources.
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Bomb blasts in Talawakelle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Two bombs went off in the hill country town of Talawakelle in the early hours of the morning today, destroying a transformer near the local school and an oil storage tank in the Barewell tea estate, two kilometers from the town.
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Military build up unsettles Pulmoddai residents

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
A large number of Muslims from Pulmoddai town and its surroundings sought refuge in the local Mosque today, fearing a major assault by the Liberation Tigers on the Sri Lankan Army positions here, according to initial reports from the eastern port town of Trincomalee.
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Feared militia commander shot dead

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Rasasingham Seevaraththinam, 27, alias Sinnavan, one of the most feared Tamil ex-militants working for the Sri Lankan security forces in the Batticaloa district, was shot dead this morning around 8.30 a.m. near the Manmunai Special Task Force (STF) camp. The STF blamed the Liberation Tigers for the killing.
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SLA, LTTE exchange bodies in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the SLA exchanged their dead through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at Mirusuvil in Jaffna yesterday for the first time since the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) took control of Jaffna in early 1996.
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Journalists taken to Jayasikurui FDLs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
More than 40 foreign and local journalists were taken by the Sri Lankan Army to areas captured in Operation Jayasikurui, since it was launched in May last year. Journalists who went on the guided tour said this evening that the press team was taken from Vavuniya on the A9 highway to Jaffna, through Puliyankulam and Kanakarayankulam to a point 1.5 km from the latter
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Tiger ambush kills 7

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Voice of Tigers said this morning that the Liberation Tigers had ambushed an SLA route clearing patrol in Mirusuvil in Thenmaradchi, south east of Jaffna killing seven soldiers and wounding several. One member of the LTTE's ambush team was killed in the fighting said the radio.
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Journalists to visit forward areas

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 February 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government will fly in a group of journalists from newspapers and news agencies in Colombo to Vavuniya and the forward areas of operation Jayasikurui tomorrow morning. The government's information department informed journalists today about the tour this afternoon.
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