Sri Lankan war planes bombed suspected Tamil Tiger gun positions in the island’s north for a third straight day Thursday, the defence ministry said.Two attacks were carried out against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Jaffna peninsula and at Puthukkudiriruppu, the ministry said, adding that they hit Tiger gun positions. “The air force claims both locations were completely destroyed in the attacks, resulting in heavy damage to the LTTE,” the ministry said.
It did not detail what damage was caused. There was no immediate word from the Tigers about the aerial strikes. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s top defence official summoned Britain’s envoy Thursday after he expressed solidarity with an editor facing death threats, diplomats said. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse “invited” British high commissioner Dominick Chilcott to his tightly-guarded office at short notice Thursday, a high commission spokesman said. “They talked about the role of the media,” the spokesman said. “The high commissioner and the defence secretary agreed that the confidentiality of the meeting would be preserved.”
The summons came after Chilcott visited the editor of ColomboÂ’s Daily Mirror, Champika Liyanaarachchi Wednesday, a day after she said she received a death threat from Rajapakse. ChilcottÂ’s unexpected visit was seen by diplomats as a signal of BritainÂ’s deep concern over recent attacks against the freedom of expression in this former British colony.
His gesture of support came hours after the Sri Lankan government accused unnamed diplomats of interfering in the islandÂ’s internal affairs and warned that those meddling would be kicked out. Rajapakse denied issuing a death threat, in remarks posted on the defence ministry web site.