The Liberation Tigers relocated their civil administration structures from Jaffna
to Kilinochchi when the SLA took control of Jaffna in early 1996. In August
1996, the SLA launched an offensive and took control of the town after bitter
fighting.
This nodal Tamil town was captured by the Sinhala armed forces two
years ago(1996/Aug) in three successive operations code-named Sathjeya 1, 2 and 3.