Category: Defense

COLOMBO, Aug 11, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tigers Friday warned of a humanitarian crisis after 42,000 people were displaced by a surge in violence that has left Sri Lanka’s truce in tatters, as fighting erupted on two new fronts. There were similar gatherings elsewhere too.” The latest fighting has been the worst in Sri Lanka […]

KANTALAI, Sri Lanka, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tamil Tiger positions as the two sides shelled each other around a disputed waterway near here Thursday, leaving at least two soldiers dead and 26 wounded. “We are on a defensive operation,” spokesman Upali Rajapakse said. “We had to retaliate when our […]

KANTALAI, Sri Lanka, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan warplanes bombed Tiger positions as fighting broke out again near a disputed waterway in the troubled northeast Thursday, leaving more than 50 people dead according to the rebels. Some 30,000 people who fled their homes last week because of fighting between troops and the Tigers […]

KANTALAI, Sri Lanka, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – Doctor Iranthi de Silva has worked for 15 hours straight, battling fatigue and stress as casualties in Sri Lanka’s strife-torn northeast mounted Thursday. A brief lull in the chaotic, makeshift emergency room at the Kantalai Base Hospital allowed her to sit down. But the distant wailing of […]

Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels are insisting that truce monitors from EU countries quit Sri Lanka despite efforts by peace broker Norway to persuade them to drop their demand, the government said Wednesday.Norway’s top peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer told the government that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were demanding monitors […]

Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Five people including a doctor were killed when an ambulance was caught up in a mine attack carried out by government forces, Tamil Tiger rebels said.A Claymore mine attack in the island’s central district of Kandy killed a senior police commando officer and his driver on Monday. The blast hit […]

Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – Water flowed down a disputed canal in Sri Lanka Wednesday after peace broker Norway defused the island’s bloodiest battle in four years and averted a return to civil war, residents and officials said.Norway’s special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer arranged for the Tamil Tiger rebels to end a water blockade at the […]

PARIS, Aug 9, 2006 (AFP) – A French charity on Wednesday demanded that the “butchers” behind the murder of 17 of its employees in Sri Lanka’s embattled northeast be brought to justice and full light shed on the killings.ACF director Benoit Miribel was to leave for Sri Lanka Wednesday to attend ceremonies commemorating the dead […]

PARIS, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Seventeen employees of a French charity found dead in northeastern Sri Lanka at the weekend were all executed by gunfire, the group confirmed Tuesday, demanding that those responsible be severely punished. Following the massacre, the charity suspended its local mission to Sri Lanka, whose 15 expatriate and 224 local […]

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Relatives Tuesday sprinkled perfumed water and buried aid workers gunned down inside their office in strife-torn northeastern Sri Lanka, while police maintained tight security.“I just want to get his remains now and give him a decent burial. There is nothing more I can do.He is already dead.” […]

Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels lifted a water blockade Tuesday at the root of Sri Lanka’s latest bloodshed, which has officially claimed over 440 lives, as a car bomb killed three people in the capital.The fighting in the past fortnight has been the worst since the 2002 truce, which has been repeatedly […]

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Grief-stricken men, women and children trudge to a refugee camp after fleeing deadly fighting through ghost towns and past decomposing bodies, haunted by what they have seen.They are escaping from Sri Lanka’s troubled northeast and many do not talk, instead simply gesturing for food and water. Stunned […]