Air raids continue for second day in Sri Lanka

The air raids began in Sri Lanka after the massacre of 64 civilians by a suspected LTTE terror squad, reports PK Balachandran.

For the second day on Friday, Kfir fighter-bombers of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) took on the LTTE's military installations in North Sri Lanka, Defence spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe, said.

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The targets were "known LTTE military establishments in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts," he said.

"They were not civilian targets," he emphasised.

He described the operation as a "limited one".

The air raids, which began on Thursday, followed the massacre of 64 civilians by a suspected LTTE terror squad in Kepitigollawa in Anuradhapura district earlier that day.

The government had put the blame squarely at the door of the LTTE.

Meanwhile, the pro-LTTE Tamil website www.puthinam.com said that the raids by two Kfir fighter-bombers began on Friday at 6.28 am and lasted till 6.35 am. The planes came back for another sortie, it added.

According to Tamilnet, Thursday's raid on a coastal settlement of tsunami refugees in Mullaitivu district, was unsuccessful, as it had missed the target.

Some of the bombs did not explode, it said.

But 300 tsunami refugees housed at Selvapuram fled the area following the air raids.

There were raids on the outskirts of Kilinochchi, the LTTE's political headquarters in the northern area of the Wanni late on Thursday evening.

Earlier, at 3.15 pm, Tharavai and Pulipaynthakal in the eastern district of Batticaloa, were also bombed from the air, media reports said.