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| Civilian casualty of Sri Lankan Air Force bombing. |
The Sri Lankan Air Force has intensified its bombing raids on Tamil Tiger-held Vanni region in the past week, targeting populated areas.
Several civilians have been killed and injured in five separate air raids since September 11. The Sri Lankan military insists it is attacking LTTE bases and cadres.
Some analysts suggest the increased aerial bombardment signals an imminent offensive by the Sri Lankan security forces into the region.
On Saturday September 22, for the second day in a row, Israeli-made Kfir jets bombed Viswamadhu, bordering the Kilinochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts, killing an 85-year-old man and injuring 14 people including elderly and children including a six-months-old baby and a 9-year-old girl.
Civilians at the Visuvamadu market, situated 350 meters from the attack site, fled in panic as the bombs tore through the village.
On Friday September 21 two Kfir bombers dropped eight bombs in two sorties just after midday on Visuvamadu junction, behind the shops in the area.
A 65-year-old man and a three year old child were wounded.
Five students in a school located 800 meters from the bombed area fainted in shock when the bombs exploded.
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| Mother and child injured in Viswamadhu bombing. |
Over 400 students from Punnai Neeravi Viththiyalam, and 900 students from Visuvamadu Maha Viththiyalayam narrowly escaped death and injury in the bombings.
Had the schools been hit in the indiscriminate bombing, a tragedy of the magnitude of the massacre of schoolgirls in Vallipunam last year would have been inflicted again on residents of Puthukkudiyiruppu.
Over fifty school girls were killed in August 2006 when SLAF jets bombed the Sencholai children’s home where a residential first aid course was underway.
According to Air Force spokesman Group Cap. Ajantha Silva, the air strike badly damaged an LTTE complex west of Puthukkudiyiruppu.
On the previous day, September 20, six civilians were injured and rushed to Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital after SLAF bombers dropped bombs near Puthukkudiyiruppu town, targeting the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) Mullaiththeevu district office and the civilian settlements in the area.
The TRO buildings were damaged, and a civilian house was fully destroyed in the attack when the bombs exploded on the air and the ground, 1 km near the town on A-35 highway.
Tension prevailed in the town as civilians at the market and other locations fled in panic.
Patients at the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital ran out of the hospital as doors and windows of the building rattled. An average of four hundred people attend the hospital each daily.
Following that bombing, the Sri Lankan Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said that the Air Force jets had bombed a weapons and ammunition storage site of the LTTE.
The MCNS even claimed the airstrike had set off a wave of explosions that lasted more than 90 minutes. The MCNS did not comment on injured civilians or the damaged TRO offices.
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| Damaged TRO office |
The students of Puthukkudiyiruppu Central College were out in the grounds at the time, assembled for morning prayers. Many students fainted in fear while the rest of the students and teachers scattered in panic. In the ensuing scramble many students were injured.
Out patients and those warded in Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital also fled from the hospital premises fearing attacks on the hospital area.
Following this attack, Sri Lankan defence sources claimed to have accurately hit a vital strategic operational base of LTTE's financial wing leader, Mr. Thamilendi.
Two days earlier, on Tuesday September 11, four SLAF Kfir jets bombed Vaddakkachchi area in Kilinochchi district Tuesday morning, first between 8:30 and 8:45 am and then again at 9:00 am, causing panic among students and teachers in schools who fled in fear seeking safety.
