SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers say 61 schoolgirls killed when Air Force bombed the grounds of a former orphanage; car bomb killed 7 in capital Colombo.

Record ID: 783957

  • Title: SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers say 61 schoolgirls killed when Air Force bombed the grounds of a former orphanage; car bomb killed 7 in capital Colombo.
  • Date: 15th August 2006
  • Summary: (BN09) COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (AUGUST 14, 2006)(REUTERS) WIDE OF STREET, LOCALS WATCHING LOCALS HOLDING UMBRELLAS, WATCHING
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA7EY79Q6F9SEIC9E1RCVU6K4K2
  • Story Text: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels accused on Monday (August 14) the government of bombing a former orphanage in rebel territory and killing 61 schoolgirls aged 15-18 and injuring 155.
    The rebels said that the Air Force had deliberately targeted the schoolchildren as they were taking a first aid course in the worst single loss of civilian life since fighting flared three weeks ago.
    The military dismissed the claim, saying jets had bombed a rebel training camp and killed 50-60 Tiger fighters. The military posted a photograph on its Web site which it said depicted Tamil schoolgirls in taking weapons training.
    The girls were between 15 and 18 years old, according to the Tamil Tiger military spokesman.
    Nordic truce monitors said they had seen the bodies of 19 youths, both male and female, aged 17-20 and said the site did not appear to be a rebel training camp. They said the orphanage building itself was still standing, and any orphans had been moved elsewhere some time ago.
    Shortly after LTTE said Air Force jets bombed the former orphanage, Tamil Tigers killed seven people and injured 17 in an attack on a Pakistan embassy convoy.
    A military spokesman said it was definitely a LTTE attack to the Pakistan ambassador's car, but he escaped uninjured.
    Four military personnel and three civilians were killed in the blast, that took place less than a mile from Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's residence.
    Bomb squad officials said the blast was caused by a fragmentation mine inside a three wheeler taxi.
    The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital. Soon afterwards, the three-wheeled autorickshaw was still burning as heavily armed troops and police sealed off the area, only 100 metres (yards) from a busy shopping mall.
    Peppered with what looked to be ball-bearings from the claymore mine, a Land Rover had slammed through a wall. A nearby car was burning while other civilian vehicles were damaged and smashed.
    The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland for the past two decades.
    They control much of the North Eastern province, and the region has recently seen some of the the heaviest fighting since a 2002 truce.
    On Saturday (August 12), the Tamil Tigers broke through military defences in Jaffna, exchanging fierce gunfire with government troops. In response, Government jets dropped bombs near the rebels' forward defence lines in the northern Jaffna peninsula, residents said.
    Pictures filmed in the far north of Tamil Tiger territory in Sri Lanka on Saturday (August 12) show scenes of heavy fighting, killed civilians and displaced people trying to get out of the way of the worst of the fighting.
    The pictures were filmed by the Tamil Television Network (TTN), whose cameraman went into battle with Tamil Tiger rebels -- the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE -- in Mandaitivu, on the far northern Jaffna peninsula.
    "We never expected an attack like this," said a local volunteer, who's trying to help people displaced by the fighting get food and water. "We're trying to get hold of people in local businesses and organisations to help out and we're doing our best."
    The military accused the Tigers of provoking the northern confrontation and the government has said it will not halt operations until it controls a disputed waterway in the east and an irrigation reservoir that feeds it. This was the issue that sparked the fighting 18 days ago.
    The Tamil Tigers' spokesperson told TTN that they were acting in self-defense.
    "We got some information that the naval base in Mandaitivu was going to be used as a supporting base to attack the LTTE, so we carried out a preemptive attack," the spokesperson said.
    "Our attacks are still ongoing. We won't wait until Sri Lankan forces come to our homes and kill our women and children and hang them, so we wanted to attack them first."
    Displaced civilians are starting to trickle out of Tamil Tiger held territory, but no one knows how many people are trapped in the country's north amid the fighting.
    The Tigers have long demanded a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka but President Mahinda Rajapakse has ruled this out. The rebels say any return to stalled peace talks is a distant prospect.
    Aid workers estimate around 100,000 people have been displaced during three weeks of fighting. Dozens are confirmed dead, and many fear the eventual death toll will be far higher.
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