The Sri Lankan military urged Tamil Tiger rebels fleeing attacks by army and commandos in the east to surrender yesterday, as operations against the insurgents' camps intensified.
Village heads in Ampara district were told to deliver the announcement to Tamil Tiger rebels who were in hiding or on the run after four rebel bases and seven smaller camps fell to military control last week, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Samarasinghe urged the rebels to hand themselves in at the nearest police or army post.
The mainstream Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ridiculed the idea.
"It is not an issue worth commenting upon," rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said from Kilinochchi.
"Now and then they [the military] make such meaningless announcements, but we are not bothered," he said.
Ilanthirayan admitted, however, that Sri Lankan forces had moved into some rebel-held areas in Ampara.
"Of course they made advances to our territory in Ampara, but then in Ampara we operate in a guerrilla mode," he said, adding that they are continually on the move.
Separately, Sri Lankan troops fatally shot two rebels who confronted them while on a foot patrol in eastern Sri Lanka.
The troops recovered two AK-47 automatic rifles, ammunition and two hand grenades from the dead men, who were members of the LTTE, Samarasinghe said.
The incident happened late on Sunday in Batticaloa district, which adjoins Ampara.
Also late on Sunday, the military discovered two bombs, locally called Claymore mines, in the northern towns of Vavuniya and Jaffna, Samarasinghe said. The mines are the preferred weapon of the rebels.
The rebels have been fighting for over 20 years for a separate homeland for the country's 3.1 million minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
RSS