At least 38 Tamil Tiger rebel fighters and government soldiers have been killed in fresh fighting in Sri Lanka, the defense ministry said yesterday.
The guerrillas killed seven soldiers in an attack inside Yala National Park, Sri Lanka's main wildlife sanctuary in the southeast, a military official said.
Six of the soldiers died in an overnight attack on an army outpost, and the seventh trooper was killed and three more wounded in a mine attack as additional troops poured into the area, officials said.
"A pocket of isolated terrorists had attempted to overrun the army outpost," the defense ministry said in a statement. "Troops supported by reinforcements successfully managed to chase the terrorists away."
EXCHANGE OF FIRE
In separate fighting, at least 30 rebels were killed and many more wounded in several exchanges of fire on Monday in the island's north, where a frontline divides government territory and a Tamil Tiger mini-state, the defense ministry said.
"Sri Lanka army soldiers launched several pre-emptive strikes immediately ahead of their forward defenses in Wanni and in Jaffna killing over 30 terrorists," the ministry said in a statement.
In the northern skirmishes, one government soldier was also killed and seven were wounded, the ministry said.
No independent confirmation of the claim was immediately available, and there was no comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
SANCTUARY
The attack inside the Yala sanctuary came a day before authorities were due to open it to visitors following the park's annual six-week shutdown.
The guerrillas have carried out several attacks against security forces and wildlife employees, and three of the five zones within the 1,000km2 park reserve have remained closed for several years following Tiger attacks.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1972 for autonomy in the island's north and east in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not