Sri Lanka's president vowed yesterday to crush Tamil Tiger rebels after a rush-hour train bombing blamed on the insurgents killed eight passengers and wounded 70 others.
“I will not stop till terrorism is defeated,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a meeting with media officials, according to a statement from his office.
“No one should have expectations that there will be a letup in the battle against terrorism because of the frenzied attacks” by the rebels, the statement quoted Rajapaksa as saying.
The bomb blast took place inside a train during Monday evening’s rush hour. The train was preparing to leave a station in Dehiwala, just south of Colombo, when the blast tore through it.
Rajapaksa said the rebels had resorted to targeting civilians to divert the government’s attention from its successful operations against them in the north.
BOMBER BOMBED
Meanwhile, the military said air force helicopters bombed and destroyed a rebel explosives storage depot in northern Sri Lanka on Monday, killing a guerrilla bomb-making expert.
The air force targeted the explosives stash in Mannar district’s Andankulam village, a military official said on condition of anonymity, citing government rules.
The official also said separate ground clashes on Monday killed 20 rebels on the northern front lines in the Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya areas.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment. It was not possible to get independent confirmation of the military’s claims because reporters are not allowed in the war zone. Each side routinely exaggerates damage inflicted on its enemy and underreports its own losses.
RECENT CLASHES
Government forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers have engaged in violent clashes for the past several months around the guerrillas’ northern stronghold.
Scores of civilians have also been killed in bus and train bombings, most of which the government has blamed on the Tigers. The rebels have denied involvement in some attacks, but have not commented on many others.
The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for minority ethnic Tamils, who have faced decades of discrimination at the hands of successive governments controlled by majority Sinhalese.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS