Category: Defense

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka needs true devolution of power to minority Tamils if it wants to permanently end its long-running ethnic war, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said Wednesday. Menon, who was in Washington for talks, said the United States and the Sri Lankan government itself both agreed with regional power […]

March 12, 2009 (AFP) – Security forces captured more territory in northeastern Sri Lanka after heavy fighting that killed at least 12 rebels, the military said Thursday. Troops took control of the abandoned Puthukkudiriruppu hospital following Wednesday’s clashes, a military official said. “At least a dozen LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) terrorists were killed […]

NEW DELHI, March 11, 2009 (AFP) – It was less than a year ago that Indians watched inflation shoot to dizzying 13-year highs but now they are worried about deflation as growth slackens in Asia’s third-largest economy. Deflation — in which falling prices prompt consumers to delay buying, deepening a downturn — has become a […]

March 11, 2009 (AFP) – The United Nations on Wednesday accused the Tamil Tigers of siphoning off food meant for severely malnourished children in Sri Lanka’s embattled north.The defence ministry says troops are on the verge of defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1972. […]

March 10, 2009 (AFP)- At least 10 people were killed Tuesday and another 25, including two ministers, were wounded in a suicide bomb attack in southern Sri Lanka, a local police official said. Telecommunications minister Mahinda Wijesekara and Cultural Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena were wounded, the official said.He said Wijesekera was in intensive care at […]

March 10, 2009 (AFP) – At least 15 people were killed Tuesday and another 60, including a government minister, were wounded in a suicide bombing in southern Sri Lanka blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said. The attacker targeted politicians attending a function at a mosque in the town of Akuressa, and came as the […]

March 10, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government on Tuesday vowed to finish off the Tamil Tiger guerrilla rebels who were blamed for a suicide bomb that killed 15 people and badly injured a senior politician. There has been no reaction from the guerrillas, who have launched scores of similar suicide bombings in the past.Tuesday’s […]

March 9, 2009 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan military said Monday its troops have killed at least 150 Tamil Tigers in a weekend of fierce fighting inside the rebels’ shrinking fiefdom in the northeast of the island. Army spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said the Tigers, boxed into an area of less than 50 square kilometres (19 […]

March 8, 2009 (AFP) – More than 100 Tamil Tiger rebels have been killed in two days of fighting in Sri Lanka as they tried to break a military stranglehold, the defence ministry said Sunday.They died when the army beat back a series of counter-attacks by the Tiger rebels against advancing government forces in the […]

March 7, 2009 (AFP) – At least 32 Tamil Tigers were killed in heavy fighting in Sri Lanka’s embattled northeast, where government troops have cornered the rebels, the defence ministry said Saturday. “The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) end game is reaching its final phase,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that dozens […]

March 5, 2009 (AFP) – A local Red Cross employee was killed in Sri Lanka’s war zone, where troops have cornered Tamil Tiger rebels, an official said on Thursday. “One of our male workers was killed on Wednesday afternoon by shrapnel,” of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne said. Wijeratne […]

March 5, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday offered a new safe passage for thousands of civilians trapped in the island’s war zone as fresh fighting erupted, leaving at least 33 rebels dead, the defence ministry said.A pitched battle raged in the village of Chalai on Thursday, a day after a local Red Cross employee […]