page - 04
Monday, January 08, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Tamil Tigers Blamed for Sri Lankan Blast
Associated Press, Sat
Officials said the bus wreckage indicated that a suicide bomber may have been behind the attack, which ripped through the bus on the crowded southern coast road early Saturday afternoon.
``There is a female body inside the bus, and looking at the damage the blast has caused around her, we suspect that she could have been a suicide bomber,'' said senior police official Upul Ariyaratne.
About 65 passengers had been on bus, Ariyaratne said, and some 40 had been admitted to hospitals.
The Tigers have made suicide bombings a hallmark of their two-decade campaign to carve out a separate state for the minority Tamils, who suffered years of discrimination by the Sinhalese-dominated government.
However, the Tigers denied any role in Saturday's bloodshed.
``We totally deny that (the bus bombing). We did not do that,'' the rebels' military spokesman, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, told The Associated Press by telephone from the group's northern stronghold, Kilinochchi.
Sri Lankan officials said the two bombings six people were killed in a similar bus attack Friday on a highway northeast of
``The LTTE is losing their strength in the east. Because of this, they are targeting innocent civilians,'' said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.
Both bus explosions came days after the rebels warned the government of ``serious repercussions'' for government airstrikes they said had killed 16 Tamil civilians, including eight children, in a Tiger-controlled northwestern area. The military said it targeted only rebel positions in the airstrikes Tuesday.
``This looks like a retaliatory attack for the air force raids,'' said Sunanda Deshapriya, an independent political analyst.
``The LTTE has gone back to its previous tactic of attacking Sinhalese civilians,'' Deshapriya said. ``It wants to send a message through terror again.''
In other violence Saturday, three separate roadside bombings, blamed on the insurgents, killed four soldiers and a civilian in the north.
A 2002 cease-fire between the rebels and the government has come under serious threat as more than 3,600 fighters and civilians were killed in renewed fighting in 2006. The cease-fire still officially holds.
The civil war has claimed about 68,000 lives, and displaced 1.6 million people.
Associated Press writers Dilip Ganguly and Ruwan Weerakoon contributed to this report.
Bus Blasts Kill 15 People in Sri Lanka
The blast, which police suspect was triggered by a female suicide bomber, was the country's second bus bombing in as many days _ a sign of escalation of the bloody ethnic conflict ravaging the tropical island nation off southern
Police blamed Tamil Tiger rebels for the bus attack in the coastal town of
Though violence has risen sharply in
Officials said the bus wreckage indicated that a suicide bomber may have been behind the attack, which ripped through the bus on the crowded southern coast road early Saturday afternoon.
``There is a female body inside the bus, and looking at the damage the blast has caused around her, we suspect that she could have been a suicide bomber,'' said senior police official Upul Ariyaratne.
About 65 passengers had been on bus, Ariyaratne said, and some 40 had been admitted to hospitals.
The Tigers have made suicide bombings a hallmark of their two-decade campaign to carve out a separate state for the minority Tamils, who suffered years of discrimination by the Sinhalese-dominated government.
However, the Tigers denied any role in Saturday's bloodshed.
``We totally deny that (the bus bombing). We did not do that,'' the rebels' military spokesman, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, told The Associated Press by telephone from the group's northern stronghold, Kilinochchi.
Officials say the two bombings _ six people were killed in a similar bus attack Friday on a highway northeast of
``The LTTE is losing their strength in the east. Because of this, they are targeting innocent civilians,'' said military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe.
The military has pushed harder in recent months against the rebels, who control much of the island's north and parts of the east, where they run their own de facto state.
Both bus explosions came days after the rebels warned the government of ``serious repercussions'' for government airstrikes they said had killed 16 Tamil civilians, including eight children, in a Tiger-controlled northwestern area. The military said it targeted only rebel positions in the airstrikes Tuesday.
``This looks like a retaliatory attack for the air force raids,'' said independent political analyst Sunanda Deshapriya.
``The LTTE has gone back to its previous tactic of attacking Sinhalese civilians,'' Deshapriya said. ``It wants to send a message through terror again.''
In other violence, three separate roadside bombings, blamed on the insurgents, killed four soldiers and a civilian in the north.
Violence has grown in
A Norwegian-brokered 2002 cease-fire still officially holds, but is largely ignored by both sides.
The civil war has claimed about 68,000 lives, and displaced 1.6 million people.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
VARAURAIKAL - Posted Delay
We are apologies for the delayed publishing of the VARAURAIKAL Tamil newspaper for the date of 05.01.2007 by some technical experience.
web publisher group- skynet
Roadside bombs kill 5 in northern Sri Lanka , military says
Associated Press, Sat January 6, 2007 03:00 EST . KRISHAN FRANCIS - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Suspected Tamil Tiger insurgents triggered three roadside bombs across Sri Lanka - 's volatile north on Saturday, killing four soldiers and a civilian, the military said, while police detained 10 people for questioning overnight after a bus bombing by suspected rebels killed six.
A Norwegian-brokered 2002 cease-fire has all but disintegrated, although it still officially holds.
Before the cease-fire, the conflict between the Tigers, fighting for a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese-dominated government, claimed the lives of about 65,000 people and displaced another 1.6 million.
Blasts kill 5 in Sri Lanka as bus bombing probed
Sat Jan 6, 2007 4:09am ET
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Suspected Tamil Tiger bomb attacks killed four soldiers and a civilian in north Sri Lanka on Saturday, as police questioned 18 people over a blast that killed six civilians and wounded dozens on a bus a day earlier.
Three soldiers and a civilian were killed when a truck hit a mine in the northern district of Vavuniya, while another soldier was killed in a similar attack on the northern
Police were still searching for the culprits of Friday's bus bombing 36 km (20 miles) outside
"We are still investigating. At the moment 18 people are being questioned, but no one is in custody," said E.W. Prathapasinghe, a Deputy Inspector General of Police for the island's
Officials put the death toll at six, including one child, and said around 60 other passengers were hurt, 10 of them seriously.
"Every government has given promises of finishing the war, but they are only promises and a dream for us. We are suffering," 22-year-old survivor R. Rasika said from a
"People in the north are suffering and being killed too," the architecture student added. "The government needs to find a peaceful solution. This country is not just for (majority) Sinhalese people. I think we need to find a practical power sharing system.
The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the blasts, but routinely deny involvement in bombings and ambushes.
"Yesterday's bombing bears all the hallmarks of Tiger attacks," said Iqbal Athas, an analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly. "The fact that they have now started targeting (civilians) is a cause for concern.
"One cannot rule out more attacks on civilians," he added.
More than 3,000 troops, civilians and rebel fighters were killed in a spree of ambushes, suicide bombings, air raids, naval clashes and land battles last year despite a 2002 ceasefire, which international monitors say now exists only on paper.
(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Buddhika Weerasinghe in
((Editing by Jeremy Laurence; Colombo Newsroom +94-777-686-030, simon.gardner@reuters.com)
Monday, January 01, 2007
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
Blast in a car injures one person in Sri Lankan capital
Associated Press, Fri December 29, 2006 00:33 EST . - - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) A blast, possibly triggered by explosives kept in the vehicle, wounded one person in Sri Lankan capital Friday, the military said.
The blast caused a fire, and the car was damaged, military spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.
No other details were immediately available. The incident took place at Wattala district.
The blast caused a fire, and the car was damaged, military spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.
No other details were immediately available. The incident took place at Wattala district.
Sri Lanka military says rebel-held town to fall soon
29 Dec 2006 11:26:08 GMT
By Sanjeev Miglani
COLOMBO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - An eastern stronghold of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels will likely fall to the military soon following weeks of fighting that has forced thousands of civilians to flee, a brigadier said on Friday.
Vakarai, the scene of intense artillery battles with the Tigers since November, is the last major rebel-held town on the east coast after the military drove them out of territory near the strategic port of Trincomalee further north.
"It's a matter of time now. It could be days, or weeks, but we will get there," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview.
"The only thing holding us back is the fear of civilian casualties; they are using them as human shields," he said.
Analysts said the offensive on Vakarai was a key step in the government's plan to clear the Tigers from the east. Once the rebels are pushed out, the government plans to hold local elections that a faction of renegade rebels opposed to the Tigers and aligned to the military are expected to win.
"Once it's cleared, there won't be any big bases left in the area. There will be sporadic incidents, but not like this," Samarasinghe said.
But the rebels, who want to create a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, have warned of a full-scale war if the military pressed its offensive.
The Tigers accuse the military of war-mongering, and Nordic truce monitors say the plan violates the terms of a now tattered 2002 ceasefire.
But Samarasinghe said the Tigers had been carrying out attacks on the army from near urban centres, provoking a retaliation.
"They started this ... it's because of them that we now have 30,000 people who have left the area, coming through jungles to escape their clutches," he said.
He estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 civilians, most of them elderly and children, were left in the Vakarai area.
"They won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," he said.
The United Nations earlier this month urged both sides to stop the shelling after the death of eight refugees who drowned at sea when the fishing boats they were fleeing in capsized.
Samarasinghe said the government had urged the international community and truce monitors to mediate with the rebels to allow the last group of civilians in Vakarai to leave by road, instead of the risky journey through jungles or sea.
"We have said we will open the road blocks, let the civilians leave, and these are the elderly and children," he said.
More than 3,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters have been killed so far this year in a series of ambushes, air raids, ground and naval battles and suicide bombings, stoking fears of a return to a civil that has killed nearly 70,000 since 1983.
By Sanjeev Miglani
COLOMBO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - An eastern stronghold of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels will likely fall to the military soon following weeks of fighting that has forced thousands of civilians to flee, a brigadier said on Friday.
Vakarai, the scene of intense artillery battles with the Tigers since November, is the last major rebel-held town on the east coast after the military drove them out of territory near the strategic port of Trincomalee further north.
"It's a matter of time now. It could be days, or weeks, but we will get there," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview.
"The only thing holding us back is the fear of civilian casualties; they are using them as human shields," he said.
Analysts said the offensive on Vakarai was a key step in the government's plan to clear the Tigers from the east. Once the rebels are pushed out, the government plans to hold local elections that a faction of renegade rebels opposed to the Tigers and aligned to the military are expected to win.
"Once it's cleared, there won't be any big bases left in the area. There will be sporadic incidents, but not like this," Samarasinghe said.
But the rebels, who want to create a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, have warned of a full-scale war if the military pressed its offensive.
The Tigers accuse the military of war-mongering, and Nordic truce monitors say the plan violates the terms of a now tattered 2002 ceasefire.
But Samarasinghe said the Tigers had been carrying out attacks on the army from near urban centres, provoking a retaliation.
"They started this ... it's because of them that we now have 30,000 people who have left the area, coming through jungles to escape their clutches," he said.
He estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 civilians, most of them elderly and children, were left in the Vakarai area.
"They won't be able to keep the civilians for long. Food and medicine is in short supply," he said.
The United Nations earlier this month urged both sides to stop the shelling after the death of eight refugees who drowned at sea when the fishing boats they were fleeing in capsized.
Samarasinghe said the government had urged the international community and truce monitors to mediate with the rebels to allow the last group of civilians in Vakarai to leave by road, instead of the risky journey through jungles or sea.
"We have said we will open the road blocks, let the civilians leave, and these are the elderly and children," he said.
More than 3,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters have been killed so far this year in a series of ambushes, air raids, ground and naval battles and suicide bombings, stoking fears of a return to a civil that has killed nearly 70,000 since 1983.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
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