Intensified fighting between government troops and Tamil rebels pushing for a breakaway state led to at least 16 more deaths in Sri Lanka's northern region, the military said.
Fourteen of those killed were rebels, one was a soldier and another a police officer.
The fighting is part of a major escalation in attacks between the two sides along the front lines surrounding the Tamil Tigers' de facto state in parts of the north. Officials say they are seeking to crush the rebels to end more than two decades of warfare.
Troops clashed with a group of rebels in the Welioya region on Thursday evening in a fight that killed one soldier, the military said.
Earlier, rebels detonated a roadside land mine as a patrol passed, killing a police officer, said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman.
In two battles on Wednesday, troops killed nine rebels in the Muhamalai area of the Jaffna Peninsula, the military said on Thursday.
The army killed four more rebels in two other attacks in the area, while another rebel was killed in a confrontation in the Mannar district south of rebel areas, the military said.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilan-thirayan disputed those figures. Independent confirmation of the casualties was not possible because the area is a restricted military zone.
Meanwhile, Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi traveled to a peace conference of religious leaders in Jaffna. Akashi was not expected to launch any new peace initiatives during his visit.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS