The new government then pursued a policy of " war for peace " . Determined to retake the key rebel stronghold of Jaffna , which was occupied by 2,000 rebels , it poured troops into the peninsula in the successful Operation Riviresa . In one particular incident in August 1995 , Air Force jets bombed St. Peter 's church at Navali ( Naavaella ) , killing at least 65 refugees and wounding 150 others . In another instance in the same year , over 40 people were massacred in Nagerkovil and more civilian massacres followed in subsequent years , such as the Kumarapuram massacre , Tampalakamam massacre , Puthukkudiyiruppu massacre , etc. , all of them carried out by government forces . Government troops initially cut off the peninsula from the rest of the island , and then , after seven weeks of heavy fighting , succeeded in bringing Jaffna under government control for the first time in nearly a decade . In a high-profile ceremony , Sri Lankan Defense Minister Col. Anuruddha Ratwatte raised the national flag inside the Jaffna Fort on 5 December 1995 . The government estimated that approximately 2500 soldiers and rebels were killed in the offensive , and an estimated 7,000 wounded . Many civilians were killed in this conflict , such as the Navaly church bombing in which over 125 civilians died . The LTTE and more than 350,000 civilians , compelled by LTTE pressure to leave Jaffna , fled to the Vanni region in the interior . Most of the refugees returned later the next year
Nagerkovil
Nagerkovil school bombing
Sri Lankan Civil War