SLAF, army step up pressure on northern front Tigers accuse SLAF of hitting civilian settlement near Kilinochchi hospital- The Island- 2008/10/02

by Shamindra Ferdinando
The SLAF launched five raids on LTTE positions, two of them close to the Kilinochchi Hospital yesterday morning as the Army advanced about four kilometres from the Kilinochchi town limits.

Jets also zeroed-in on an LTTE facility at Piramanthalkulam in the Mullaitivu district which SLAF spokesperson Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara told The Island was frequented by the top LTTE leadership. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was believed to have been among the visitors to the base targeted at 5.30 a.m., he said.

At 10.25 a.m., jets had bombed two LTTE targets south of Kilinochchi town. The SLAF identified them as a facility used by the Charles Anthony ‘brigade’ and a women’s training camp.

According to him, two more targets had been taken a few kilometres south of Kilinochchi at 2. 40 p.m.

Pro-LTTE Tamilnet said that two civilians had been killed in the SLAF strike carried out at 10.25 a.m. The website accused the SLAF of killing two civilians and wounding 19 by bombing a civilian settlement.

One two-year-old girl, a four-year-old boy, a 16-year-old and seven women were among the wounded, the website said, adding that 19 houses were destroyed while some windows of the Kilinochchi Hospital were shattered.

Military spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told The Island that troops were consolidating their positions on the outskirts of Kokavil to the south of Kilinochchi bordering the parallel A-9 road and the old Murikandi-Kokavil Railway Station. The Brigadier said that the troops were about four kilometers south of Kilinochchi town limits and west of the A9. Responding to our queries, he said the army had not disturbed the A9 northwards of Omanthai entry/exit point so far.

The LTTE wiped out the army base at Kokavil in the second week of July 1990. The base set up to protect Rupavahini relay station fell after a two-week battle which caused heavy losses on the army. The LTTE forced the army out of several bases located along the Vavuniya-Elephant Pass stretch during the early stages of the Eelam War II.

The 57 Division is conducting operations in the Kokavil area.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island that military operations in the north were necessarily slow but steady in keeping with the ‘zero civilian casualty policy’ of the military which had been pursued with a high degree of success in the Eastern Province in the Eastern Province.

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