21 killed in Lanka clashes, LTTE runway damaged

Sri Lankan fighter jets today destroyed a 'runway' operated by the LTTE even as a series of clashes over the weekend left 20 Tamil Tigers and a soldier dead in the embattled northern region.

Military fighter jets twice attacked an LTTE 'runway' located 10-km west of rebel strong hold of Mullaitivu and the pilots confirmed the target was hit successfully, Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Andrew Wijesooriya said.

According to defence sources, ten people, including a soldier, were killed in clashes yesterday while eleven rebels were shot down a day earlier.

While three militants, including two female LTTE cadres, were gunned down in Veddayanmuripu area in Mannar, another three were killed in Vavuniya region yesterday.

Troops also killed one Tiger rebel in Periyawalayankaddu area in the region yesterday, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

Another militant was killed in Veddayanmuripu area, it said, adding in a separate incident troops gunned down one militant in Mallikattidal area in Mannar, also yesterday.

One soldier lost his life in clashes in Madhu area in North-western Mannar, the Defence Ministry said. Sri Lankan fighter jets also "successfully" targeted Chilawathha Alampil area in a rebel stronghold in northern region yesterday noon, the MCNS said.

According to delayed reports, the security forces gunned down four LTTE tigers in the Madhu area on Saturday, the MCNS said, adding that seven militants were also killed in another confrontation in Madhu on the same day.

Source: outlookindia.com

Illegal travel to India lands Sri Lankans in trouble

Two Sri Lankans were arrested and another four including a woman detained for questioning Monday off the Rameshwaram coast in Tamil Nadu for trying to enter India illegally, police sources said here.

The two who were arrested were identified as Anton (40) and Valentine (29).

A police spokesman said that an Indian naval helicopter spotted them travelling in a high-speed boat ferrying a 30-year-old woman, Nakuleshwari, and her three children from Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka to India.

After surrendering to the Indian authorities, the family admitted paying Rs.50,000 to the boatmen, a police officer quoted officials as saying in the coastal town of Rameshwaram.

The family had come looking for their male breadwinner who had fled to India earlier, the police said.

The police said that the antecedents of the six people were being checked to discern whether they were linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"On the basis of their statements, we will decide the future course of action," a police source said.

Source: newkerala.com

Sri Lanka offering overseas jobs to Tamil rebels

The Sri Lankan government said Monday it was contemplating offering overseas jobs to Tamil Tiger rebels who surrendered to the authorities.

Keheliya Rambukwella, defence spokesman and minister of foreign employment told reporters that he had discussed the issue with the International Organization for Migration.

He said some 47 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) members who had surrendered in the northern Jaffna peninsula were being rehabilitated in two centres.

Some 11 former LTTE members had already been released and gone on jobs overseas, said the spokesman.

Rambukwella said the government has put up posters offering financial help and foreign employment to the members of LTTE's suicide squad.

"This was an action taken purely on humanitarian grounds," Rambukwella said, adding that the government wanted to offer an alternative to the LTTE members in order to prevent destructive action by them.

Source: newkerala.com

Sri Lankan war jets bomb LTTE airstrip

Sri Lankan jets Monday carried out two air raids on a suspected fresh airstrip of the Tamil Tigers in their heartland in Mullaitivu in the island’s north, the military said. “Air Force Kfirs and Mig-27s bombed an LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) runway located 10 km west of Mullaitivu town at 9.45 a.m. and 10.30 a.m.,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara.

“The pilots have confirmed that they … damaged it extensively,” he said, giving no further details.

Although the Sri Lankan jets have periodically bombed the LTTE airstrip at Iranaimadu in the rebel-held north, this is for the first time the air force has said it bombed a rebel airstrip in the Mullaitivu district.

The LTTE is known to be in possession of unspecified number of Czech-built Zlin Z-143 light wing aircraft and have carried out five air raids against Sri Lankan military and economic targets until October 2007.

There was no reaction from the LTTE regarding the latest air raid.

Meanwhile, Brig Nanayakkara claimed that at least 678 LTTE cadres and 73 government soldiers were killed while a large number of rebels and 316 soldiers were wounded in fighting in March.

He said despite the challenges posed by the unexpected torrential rains and resultant floods, government troops were continuing with their offensive aiming at pushing the Tigers further into the war zone.

Source: thaindian.com

Heavy Fighting Kills 71 Rebels In Sri Lanka

At least 71 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in fierce fighting with the government troops in the country's embattled northern region, officials said on Saturday.

A school used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a training camp in the region had also been captured, according to reports.

The rebels were killed in a series of separate fights.

As many as 30 rebels were killed in Pandivirichchan in North-west Mannar in fighting with troops on Friday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported quoting the state-owned Rupavahini Television reports.

At least 10 Tamil Tigers rebels were killed on Friday when security personnel captured a land stretch of 700 meters in the Illanthevan area of Mannar after destroying two LTTE bunkers, officials said.

At least seven militants were killed in clashes with army in Kilaly and Muhamalai on Friday, according to the defense ministry.

In a separate incident, as many as three LTTE cadres were shot dead in Nagarkovil in Jaffna region on Friday, the ministry said.

There was no immediate comment from the LTTE, but a soldier died on Friday after accidentally touching a live electric fence along the northern defense line, the AFP reported quoting a pro-rebel website. The military did not comment.

Security forces have killed at least 2,418 rebels since the beginning of January, while only 147 government soldiers have died in action, the defense ministry confirmed.

The government casualty numbers and those given by the Tigers cannot be independently confirmed as Colombo bars journalists and rights groups from front line areas.

The rebels have been battling for an independent homeland since 1972 in an ethnic conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Source: AHN

26 killed in Sri Lanka battles: military

Twenty-six people, including two civilians have been killed in new fighting in civil war-wracked Sri Lanka, the military said.

A series of tit-for-tat clashes between security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) across the island's north yesterday left at least 18 rebels and four soldiers dead, according to a military statement.

Also two civilian workers who were collecting sand from a river bed to make cement were killed when they came under rebel fire in Amapara in the island's east yesterday, the military said.

"Terrorist gunfire killed two of them (the civilians) but the third one survived with injuries," a military statement said. The ministry refers to the LTTE as terrorists.

There was no immediate comment from the LTTE and casualty claims by either side cannot be independently verified as journalists and rights workers are barred from the embattled areas.

Since the start of this year, at least 2,401 rebels and 147 soldiers have been killed in fighting, according to defence ministry figures.

Northern Sri Lanka has been the scene of heavy fighting between troops and Tamil rebels since the Government ejected the LTTE from its eastern stronghold last year.

Security forces have been trying to dismantle the Tigers' de facto state in the north, but the guerrillas have been putting up stiff resistance.

Tens of thousands of people have died since the LTTE launched their armed struggle in 1972 to carve out a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the the majority Sinhalese country.

Source: ABC

Sri Lanka campaign to discourage suicide bombers

Sri Lanka has launched a mystery poster campaign inviting would-be Tamil Tiger suicide bombers to phone a government helpline in exchange for 10 million rupees ($92,000) and a new life overseas.

"Why should you die with a scattered body?" the red-and-yellow posters, placed in Tamil-dominated areas of the capital, Colombo, asked readers contemplating becoming members of what the rebels call elite "Black Tiger" suicide squads.

"You also were born to live. Why should you carry bombs?" the posters said alongside a fuzzy black-and-white photograph of a suicide bomber's severed head.

Sri Lanka's capital and other districts have increasingly been targeted by suicide attacks as the government and military vow to defeat the Tigers by December, pressing home an offensive against northern rebel strongholds.

The military, perhaps wary of scaring off genuine callers with rebel sympathies, said it was unaware of the posters, which invited readers to phone a government-operated 118 line that went unanswered when called by Reuters on Thursday.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara said he did not want to comment on whether the failure to answer was a fatal campaign flaw or whether the line could be swamped by the poor in a nation where average yearly salaries are $2,230.

Police, who with the military man most road corners and major buildings in Colombo, said they were also unaware who placed the posters, which make no mention of a backer other than relying on a government number.

"We do not know who pasted up the poster," said Mangala Dehideniya, in charge of Wellawatta Police where many of the posters were placed.

The posters said Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran should sacrifice his own son before asking others to become suicide bombers.

"Your life is precious and you have only one. Do not die for the brave words of an illusion," the poster read, promising 10 million rupees for genuine callers to build a new life at home or overseas if necessary.

The Tigers are regularly hitting back at the government's offensive with bloody suicide strikes and roadside bombs increasingly aimed at civilians, escalating a conflict in which an estimated 70,000 people have died since 1983.

In February, a suicide bomber blew themselves up near Colombo's main port, wounding seven others and spreading body parts around a house in the Modhara quarter during a search and cordon operation by police.

($1=107.79 rupees)

Source: Reuters

Row erupts over Tamil rebel film

A Sinhala-language movie about Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels has provoked a row between Indian Tamil activists and the film's director.

The activists, who sympathise with the Tigers, were involved in a scuffle with the director, Tushara Peiris, in the south Indian city of Madras (Chennai).

The scuffle broke out at a studio where the film, named Prabhakaran after the Tigers' leader, was being processed.

Mr Peiris has now demanded government help to ensure his film rolls are safe.

He told the BBC he was going on a hunger strike to make the Indian and Sri Lankan governments guarantee that the prints of his film - believed still to be at the studios - are returned undamaged.

According to the Sri Lankan press, Mr Peiris' film focuses on a would-be suicide bomber recruited by the Tamil Tigers.

Rising violence

The Chennai studio processing the film was picketed by activists from the Dravidian Tamil movement, a group of parties that backs the Tigers' cause.

Scuffles broke out when Mr Peiris appeared before the protestors in an attempt to defend his film.

A leader of the protesters, Suba Veerapandian, told the BBC he regretted that the confrontation had turned violent.

But, he said, his group had acted to defend Tamils against an "insulting" film.

Tamils are the main ethnic group in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital.

Tamil speakers are in a minority in Sri Lanka, mostly concentrated in the island's north and east.

The Tigers took up arms against the Sri Lankan government more than 20 years ago, arguing that the island's ethnic Sinhala majority discriminated against Tamils.

The collapse of a recent ceasefire deal has seen fighting intensify along frontlines in the north of the country, where the rebels control a swathe of territory.

Source: bbc

Air Force warplanes destroy LTTE training facility and Radar post in Wanni

Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets successfully carried out two bombing missions targeting two identified camps of LTTE terrorists located in Wanni region this morning (March 27). According to the defence sources the targets were a training facility and a Radar command post both located in Kilinochchi district.

Air Force Spokesman Wing Commander Andrew Wijesooriya speaking to defence.lk said that the first mission was launched around 6.25.a.m. targeting a training facility located inside a jungle patch at Kalmadhu, in Iranamadhu. According to the defence intelligence, the terrorists have also used the location as a marshalling point for the conscripts.

The second mission was launched at 6.35.a.m. targeting a Radar Command post located in the Vallaipadhu area, South of Poonaryn, said the Air Force spokesman. Meanwhile, defence intelligence revealed that the terrorists have been using the location to coordinate boat operations across the Gulf of Mannar. The location was a recently established one by the terrorists due to frequent air raids on the strategically important coastal belt in the Northwest of the Island, the sources further said.

According to Wing Commander Wijesooriya the targets have been positively identified through human intelligence and verified by air surveillance. The Kfir and F-7 fighter jets carried out the missions jointly and the targets were accurately hit the added citing the fighter pilots.

Source: defence.lk

Multivision allowed to transmit

Sandasen Marasinghe

Colombo District Judge Sisira Ratnayake yesterday issued an enjoining order preventing Union Residencies (Pvt) Ltd from taking measures not to allow the Ruhunu 2001 Multivision (Pvt) Ltd to use the satellite dishes on the rooftop of the Union Residencies (Pvt) Ltd for their transmission.

The plaintiff Ruhunu 2001 Multivision (Pvt) Ltd filing the plaint before the District Court stated that it was using the two existing satellite dishes on the rooftop of the Union Residencies (Pvt) Ltd to operate their pay TV Service and Cable TV network.

The plaintiff stated that it entered into an agreement with the defendant company on November 24, 1997 to use the two existing satellites on the rooftop of the defendant company for 20 years to broadcast and transmit the plaintiff's services.

Plaintiff further submitted that the defendant later informed the plaintiff that they were unable to supply the services to the Ruhunu 2001 Multivision (Pvt) Ltd. The plaintiff further stated that the Ruhunu 2001 Multivision (Pvt) Ltd was incorporated as a joint venture between an Australian Company and Southern Development Authority to set up and operate a pay Cable Network in Sri Lanka.

The Government owns a 10 per cent share in the Ruhunu 2001 Multivision (Pvt) Ltd through the Southern Development Authority.

The Plaintiff evaluated the case for Rs. one million.

Source: dailynews