Lankan Air Force jets bombed LTTE radio tower in Wanni:LTTE

Colombo, Oct 17 (UNI) The Tamil Tiger rebels today claimed that the Israeli-built Kfir fighter jets of the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed and completely destroyed a transmission tower of the Voice of Tigers (VOT) radio broadcast located in Kokkavil in the Mullaithivu district yesterday.

The air strike was carried out for the second consecutive day after the suspected suicide cadres of the LTTE drove a truck laden with high explosives into a convoy of 24 Navy buses at Daganapothaha, Habarana leaving at least 98 sailors killed and 116 more wounded.

''Sri Lankan Kfir bombers destroyed a transmission VOT, the only radio broadcasting service outside the GoSL control area, and thus able to broadcast without the usual threats posed by the GoSL operated forces,'' the LTTE Peace Secretariat website said in a report.

Photographs showing the damaged transmission tower were also carried by the rebel website.

Military sources here confirmed the conduct of air raids, but said they were ''on identified two Tiger Sea bases in Mullaitivu and an identified LTTE military camp in Mankulam.'' The Voice of Tigers (VOT), which remained clandestine for the past two decades, got the official license for the transmission from the Sri Lanka government after the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement of February 2002.

According to the rebel website, LTTE political head S P Thamilselvan had visited the site with the head of VOT and charged that the attack was ''meant to silence the voice of the Tamils at a time when peace talks was about to start.'' ''However, the VOT service will continue uninterrupted despite the setback,'' Mr Thamilselvan was quoted as saying.

UNI XC SI KP1755