At least 52 civilians were killed in shelling in Sri Lanka's embattled northern Wanni region, where a hospital came under attack for the fourth straight day today -- this time by a cluster bomb, forcing authorities to evacuate patients from one of the last functioning medical facilities in the war zone. "We have a confirmed report that 52 civilians have been killed in a shell attack at Suranthapuram (in Wanni region) on Tuesday evening," UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo V Prabhakaran will find it difficult to survive beyond six months, Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has warned, vowing to eliminate the 3,000-strong Tiger rebels from their stronghold of Wanni in the embattled north. "The three armed forces are confident of wiping out the LTTE, which is now smarting its wounds due to the present military operations," Fonseka, who survived an assassination attempt by LTTE in April 2006, said.
A perfect strategist who undertook operations against the Sri Lankan army methodically, Velupillai Prabhakaran provided Tamil translations on English language books on war strategy to his cadres to take on the government forces.
The "mild-mannered" Velupillai never endorsed the militant ways of his son and was not even on talking terms with him for a long period, a media report had claimed recently.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam maintains a hostile approach towards the exodus of civilians from the Wanni region, and the casualties caused by it is under-reported, Sri Lankan government told a high-level United Nations delegation on Monday.
Sri Lanka claimed on Wednesday that an inquiry had found no truth in reports that military guards had traded sex for food in welfare camps set up for Tamil refugees during the final phase of the country's war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was captured alive and 'tortured' by the army before being shot dead in northern Wanni, a Jaffna-based human rights group has alleged in a report that has been dismissed as 'ridiculous' by the Sri Lankan government and military.
Advancing Sri Lankan troops have intensified the battle near the LTTE-controlled headquarters of Kilinochchi amidst fierce resistance by the Tamil Tigers and are now consolidating their position near Mannar, officials said today.
Over 67 Tamil Tigers and three soldiers were killed in fierce clashes in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials said in Colombo on Thursday.
Fresh from their success in capturing the last urban stronghold of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Mullaittivu, the Sri Lankan troops are training their guns on elusive Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran who, defence officials feel, is very much in the northern Wanni region, which comprises of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu.
The United Nations on Friday said that more than 50,000 civilians were still trapped in Sri Lanka's war zone and renewed its call to Colombo to allow an assessment mission into the area to facilitate relief operations and evacuation procedures. The Sri Lankan government had said that an estimated 15,000 people still remained in the war zone.
Claiming that rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were 'receiving an unprecedented defeat,' Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday vowed that government troops would flush out the Tigers from their Wanni heartlands in the north.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko on Monday, dubbed the photographs released by the Sri Lankan army which shows him with Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran as old ones and said there is an "ulterior motive" behind it.
The Sea Tiger chief Soosai was reported missing after the Sri Lankan Air Force jets pounded his hideout killing at least 27 rebels, even as 5,000 civilians crossed over to the army held areas in Wanni, officials said on Saturday. It was immediately not confirmed whether Soosai was killed or wounded in the attack, but he was reportedly missing.
It is not advisable for India to be seen by large sections of the Sri Lankan Tamils as not only anti-LTTE -- rightly so -- but also as anti-Tamil.
'Although the nature of the injuries is minor, he had been treated in an underground facility in a secret location in the Wanni by the LTTE's Thileepan Medical Unit, the official emergency care unit of the LTTE,' the Nation newspaper reported quoting sources.
While 18 rebels were killed on Thursday, 20 LTTE cadre were shot dead yesterday, the defence ministry said, adding that seven soldiers were also injured during the operations.
Over 34 Tamil Tiger rebels and nine soldiers have been killed in a series of gun battles in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials said in Colombo on Tuesday. Reacting to the stepped-up battles between the security forces and Tiger rebels, Nanayakkara said, "Since the LTTE has been incurring heavy losses in the recent weeks; they wanted to make their presence felt and are resorting to attacks."
"Despite heightened ground confrontations between troops and LTTE at the Wanni battle theatre, it was reported that three bombs were dropped by LTTE on Sunday at the military forward defence lines in Welioya at around 1.45 am," a defence spokesman said.
At least 10 Sri Lankan Naval officials went missing after a powerful mid-sea blast destroyed and sunk a fast attack craft they were sailing at Nayaru in the seas off Mullaitivu, sources said. "One of our Fast Attack Craft (FAC) has got caught in a suspected sea-mine explosion around 0230 hrs in the Nayaru seas. Ten sailors aboard are missing while another six have already been rescued," Navy Spokesman, Commander DKP Dassanayake said.
Troops and the LTTE exchanged fire along a de facto border in the Wanni region on Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
Making his first public appearance after claims of injuries he sustained surfaced over three months ago, Tamil Tiger leader V Prabhakaran paid homage to a slain pro-LTTE lawmaker in the rebel-held Wanni area in northern Sri Lanka. Attired in combat fatigues, Prabhakaran offered floral tributes to K Sivanesan, a Tamil National Alliance MP who was killed in the blast.
Perhaps the Indian establishment do not subscribe to the thesis that un-exhibited power is more potent. Innovative diplomacy and statesmanship with no nonsense approach is the need of the hour.
The military said it was checking on the Tiger report.
Over 12 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and three soldiers injured in separate gun battles triggered by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam's attempts to breach the de facto front line in northern Sri Lanka, the military said in Colombo on Wednesday.
The rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi was decorated with red and yellow rebel flags and senior rebels joined parents of the suicide bombers -- known as the Black Tigers -- for a public ceremony.
The Tamil rebel outfit, however, vowed to resolve differences with V Muralitharan without bloodbath.
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