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Media victories, military victories and realities on Tamilnet

''..The Tamilnet account that represented the LTTE viewpoint was quite clearly understandable. WITHOUT ACCOMPLISHING THEIR INTENDED TARGET, CONCEDING THE FACT THAT GUERRILLA AIRCRAFT FLEW TOWARDS KATUNAYAKE AND SIMPLY RETURNED WOULD HAVE BEEN BAD PROPAGANDA. More so, when LTTE Military Spokesman Irasaiah Ilanthiriyan (who goes by the nom de guerre Marshal) had to EAT HUMBLE PIE just two days earlier. It came in the form of a report on the Tamilnet on Monday (Aril 23). It said: ''Two attack air crafts (sic) of the Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) have bombed Palali military base Tuesday early morning at 1.20 a.m., inflicting heavy damage to the Sri Lankan military garrison in Jaffna's High Security Zone'', Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) military spokesman Irasaiah Ilanthiriyan told Tamilnet.

''The attack has caused severe casualties to the Sri Lankan forces garrisoned in the base, Mr. Ilanthiriyan added. The attack comes a month after Tigers attacked Colombo's Katunayake military airbase causing severe damage to the Sri Lankan Air Force installation.'' Lakshman Hulugalle, Director General of the Media Centre Security (MCNS), proved Ilanthiriyan's claims wrong. He put together a team of journalists for a visit to the Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna. They were shown that no bombs from aircraft fell on the military base. Therefore, there was no ''heavy for National casualties'' and ''severe damage'' as claimed by Mr. Ilanthiriyan. HENCE, THE LTTE MILITARY SPOKESMAN WAS NOT THERE TO COMMENT TO THE TAMILNET ON THEIR SECOND ATTEMPT ON KATUNAYAKE AIR BASE. That is not to say the LTTE aircraft did not target the Security Forces Headquarters, Jaffna, (SFHQ-J) the largest military base in Government controlled Jaffna peninsula..''