Category: Politics

Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – At least one employee was killed when a shell hit a government hospital in northeastern Sri Lanka Wednesday during an artillery duel between troops and Tamil Tigers, officials said.The main hospital in Muttur was hit early Wednesday, killing an employee and wounding several others, a hospital source in the nearby […]

Aug 2, 2006 (AFP)- Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan forces traded heavy artillery and mortar bomb fire in a two-hour clash Wednesday that left at least 20 civilians wounded, officials and doctors said.The battle in the northeast of the island nation marked the eighth day of heavy fighting between the two sides for control […]

COLOMBO, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – At least 40 Tiger rebels, five troopers and two civilians were killed when troops repulsed an attack by the guerrillas on army camps and the town of Muttur in northeastern Sri Lanka Wednesday, the defence ministry said. “During the whole incident, troops attacked the terrorists in retaliation causing them […]

Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – Tiger rebels attacked three army camps and a town in Sri Lanka Wednesday, sparking fierce fighting which killed at least 47 by official count and opened new fronts in a week-long battle over water.The deaths — which now total at least 118 since Monday — have made a mockery of […]

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – The sounds of explosions in this northeastern Sri Lankan port town were more muffled Wednesday than during an intense artillery attack a day earlier, but residents found them just as scary.“We had no sleep from midnight because of the explosions at a distance,” said housewife H.P. Bandumathi, […]

OSLO, Aug 2, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka peace mediator Norway on Wednesday called on the warring parties in Sri Lanka to immediately end all hostilities, which have claimed more than 100 lives in the past week.“We very strongly appeal to the two parties to stop the offensive operations immediately,” Norwegian Development Aid Minister Erik […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Tiger rebels shelled Sri Lanka’s main navy base Tuesday, killing four sailors and wounding 30, while warplanes bombed guerrilla positions as a bloody battle for a disputed waterway entered a seventh day. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used 122-millimeter artillery to target the base at Trincomalee as […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – The truce between Sri Lanka’s warring parties was stretched to breaking point Tuesday after one of the bloodiest days in the island’s recent history left at least 67 soldiers and Tamil rebels dead.The Tamil Tigers have been waging a violent secessionist campaign since the 1970s to secure an independent homeland […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan warplanes and artillery pounded Tiger rebel positions Tuesday after one of the bloodiest days in the island’s recent history left 67 combatants dead and made a mockery of a ceasefire.The Tamil Tigers have been waging a violent secessionist campaign since the 1970s to secure an independent homeland in […]

Aug 1, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ordering in of war planes and artillery to open a minor irrigation canal blocked by Tiger rebels is an over-reaction and a sign hawks are calling the shots, analysts said Tuesday. “Water is the life blood and very important, but could this not have been settled through negotiations […]

July 31, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops and Tiger rebels Monday fought their bloodiest ground battle since a 2002 truce, with the military reporting at least 44 combatants killed, but monitors said it was still not full-scale war.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the three-decade-old Tamil separatist conflict. The army’s ground offensive […]