Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed an eastern Sri Lankan military post and killed at least two soldiers, officials said yesterday, days after the military captured several main rebel bases, leaving dozens of guerrillas dead.
Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said the rebel attack took place in Batticaloa district's Vavunativu village late on Sunday.
The areas is about 50km south of Vaharai village, the scene of fierce weekend fighting.
Tamil Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan confirmed the incident, indicating that the rebels are still active in eastern Sri Lanka despite the military operation.
"Acquiring some real estate does not mean much," Ilanthirayan said, referring to the military's advance into eastern rebel territories.
Fighting between the Tigers and security forces has escalated in the past few months as the government has stepped up attempts to rout insurgents from parts of the north and east.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to establish an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's minority ethnic Tamils following decades of discrimination under the majority Sinhalese-dominated government.
A 2002 truce still exists on paper, but has largely collapsed since the resurgence of large-scale fighting last year.
On Sunday morning, Sri Lankan troops killed at least 18 Tigers as they tried to flee into rebel-held jungle in Batticaloa district, Samara-singhe said.
Troops also found the bodies of 22 rebels who were killed in an army assault on Saturday on several rebel bases in Batticaloa district's Kathiraveli and Vaharai villages, he said.
On Saturday, the army took control for the first time in 11 years of a main road connecting the island nation's two main towns, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.
The village of Vaharai, located on an impoverished rebel-held strip of coastline in Batticaloa district, has been the scene of heavy fighting for months.
More than 500 combatants have been killed in Vaharai since October, according to the military.
The government says the Tigers used Vaharai as a transit point to smuggle drugs and arms into the country and as a base for naval attacks.
The army's capture of Vaharai sent thousands of terrified villagers fleeing toward the neighboring government-held village of Mankerni, from where they were transported to several refugee camps far from the battle zone.
They are staying in flimsy tents and crowded school facilities.
Worried Tamil parents said their children were being detained as security forces screened refugees for suspected rebels.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS