Category: Politics

Oct 18, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tamil rebel-held territory in the island’s restive east Wednesday, killing a woman and wounding two others, the guerrillas said.The air force had been carrying out tit-for-tat attacks since the guerrillas attempted to assassinate army chief Sarath Fonseka in April.Two Israeli-built Kfir jets attacked the village […]

GALLE, Sri Lanka, Oct 18, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels staged an audacious suicide attack against Sri Lanka’s historic port of Galle Wednesday, killing at least two people and destroying three navy craft, officials said.The attack in Galle — a popular tourist destination regarded as Sri Lanka’s Riviera — came as foreign envoys pushed […]

COLOMBO, Oct 18, 2006 (AFP) – Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on Sri Lanka’s port town of Galle Wednesday after Tiger rebels launched a suicide bombing against a key naval base there, Media Minister Anura Yapa told AFP. Police were ordering people off the streets and traffic was being diverted, the minister said, adding that […]

Oct 18, 2006 (AFP) – A seaborne attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on the Sri Lankan port town of Galle on Wednesday has highlighted the guerrillas’ lethal “Sea Tiger” arm, whose suicide wing claims to have inspired Al-Qaeda.Suspected rebel suicide bombers using at least five boats infiltrated Galle’s harbour and attacked a key naval […]

DAMBULLA, Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – Through a narrow doorway leading to the dead, the grim routine of cataloguing the slain from Sri Lanka’s latest suicide bombing ground on late into the night.Dazed young sailors, some smelling of alcohol, crowded round the doorway in a building set apart at one end of the hospital grounds […]

Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – The worsening cycle of violence in Sri Lanka, where Tamil Tiger rebels this week launched their bloodiest-ever suicide attack, is a sign that neither side in the brutal ethnic conflict is ready to sit down for talks slated for next week, analysts said Tuesday.In the latest carnage, more than 100 […]

Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes hit Tamil Tiger targets Tuesday, a day after a suicide bombing killed more than 100 people and derailed efforts to save a collapsing peace process.The rebels and the government had agreed to hold October 28-29 peace talks in Switzerland before Sri Lanka’s worst-ever suicide attack on […]

Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – The Tamil Tigers’ latest suicide bomb attack, the deadliest in the island’s history, has illustrated that the rebel army still ranks as a master of the tactic.The elite band of “Black Tigers” is regarded by guerrilla supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran as a “protective armour” and one of the most effective weapons […]

Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan peace broker Norway launched a bid Tuesday to salvage planned talks after the rebels’ worst-ever suicide bombing that killed more than 100 people and prompted government retaliatory strikes.Special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer arrived in Colombo to try to finalise arrangements with government leaders for talks scheduled later this month […]

Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes Tuesday bombed and destroyed the main transmitting tower of the Tamil Tiger’s radio station, the guerrillas said.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Kfir jets attacked their “Voice of Tigers” transmitting facility in the northern town of Kokkavil. “The VOT is the only radio broadcasting […]

HABARANA, Sri Lanka, Oct 17, 2006 (AFP) – The mobile phones, stowed in bags still on board shattered, blackened buses, rang until dawn as frantic relatives sought news of their sons, Sri Lankan sailors about to come home on leave.“It’s a very terrible situation — more than 100 deaths and now so much to do. […]

Oct 16, 2006 (AFP) – A Japanese peace envoy opened talks with Sri Lankan leaders Monday as the international community stepped up pressure to salvage peace talks many fear have been doomed by an upsurge in violence.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the three-decades-old conflict for a Tamil homeland on the Sinhalese-majority island.Yasushi […]