Tag: news

Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) – Security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels have traded heavy artillery fire in northern Sri Lanka, killing 18 rebels, officials said Friday, a day after Japan warned it may stop aid unless fighting subsided. Backed by war planes and heavy guns, the military smashed several rebel bunkers and killed at least […]

Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels Wednesday lodged a formal protest with the United Nations alleging that security forces bombed a school bus and killed 18 civilians, mostly children, and accused them of targeting non-combatants. Among those dead on the bus were 12 children between the ages of eight and 16, […]

Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – At least four people were killed in a powerful explosion in Sri Lanka’s embattled northern peninsula of Jaffna on Thursday, officials said.The explosion at Thirunelveli was believed to be the work of a suicide bomber, a military official here said, adding that initial reports said four civilians had been killed. […]

TOKYO, Jan 31, 2008 (AFP) – Japan, Sri Lanka’s top donor, warned Thursday it could cut off aid if violence continued to escalate but said it hoped to provide long-term support to bring peace.“We could be forced to review our aid policy if military action keeps escalating, although Sri Lanka wants Japan to continue it,” […]

Jan 30, 2008 (LBO) – The safety of journalists in Sri Lanka is in jeopardy with increasing attacks and threats against them that are meant to stifle freedom of opinion, international media rights groups have said. Attacks against journalists were bringing the government into disrepute and eroding democracy in the island, the International Federation of […]

Jan 30, 2008 (LBO) – A veteran Sri Lankan trade unionist says the voice of the working class is now muted and people are battling to survive as prices are rising and terrorism is spreading to all corners of the land. “This is a great misfortune to the country. If there is no voice for […]

Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) – Heavy fighting gripped Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula Wednesday with both Tiger rebels and government forces claiming they had the upper hand after smashing each other’s fortifications.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they resisted a pre-dawn three-pronged assault in the area, one of several points from where government […]

Jan 28, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan judge Monday ordered the state to carry out dignified burials for 16 people who had been killed execution-style and dumped in shallow graves within a government-controlled part of the island. A magistrate in the area where the bodies were found asked the top district administrator and the […]

Jan 29, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is installing a hi-tech radar capable of detecting small boats of the type used by the Sea Tiger rebels as well as small aircraft, a media report said. The high-frequency (HF) surface wave radar, developed at a cost of 39 million Canadian dollars by Ottawa defence scientists and […]

Jan 29, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government said Tuesday its soldiers had advanced into territory held by the Tamil Tigers in the north of the island, with the death toll from two days of fighting at 69.Troops smashed 16 guerrilla bunkers in the district of Mannar on Tuesday after killing at least 22 rebels, […]