| Submit your comments on this article |
| Sri Lanka |
| 'Border' clashes kill 46 in Lanka |
| 2008-02-11 |
| Forty Tamil Tigers and six soldiers have been killed in a series of battles along the “border” that separates state from rebel-held territory in northern Sri Lanka, the military said on Sunday. “There was a series of clashes in Mannar which killed 11 terrorists and two soldiers, while confrontations in Vavuniya killed 19 terrorists and three soldiers also died,” a military spokesman said, asking not to be named in line with policy. Seven Tiger rebels and a soldier were killed in the northern Jaffna peninsula, while another three rebels were killed in the northern district of Polonnaruwa, he added. Buoyed by battlefield victories in the east, where it has captured swathes of rebel-held terrain, the government is now seeking to overrun the rebels’ northern stronghold and has vowed to defeat the separatist Tigers militarily. But the Tigers continue to mount deadly suicide attacks and roadside bombings, including in the capital Colombo, and analysts say neither side is winning. Meanwhile, tourist arrivals are down and so is the stock market, which has fallen around 3 percent so far this year after sliding nearly 7 percent in 2007, with some businesses shelving investment plans. Army chief: Sri Lanka’s army chief again vowed to defeat Tamil separatists but refused to set a deadline for the end of the decades-old conflict, saying the rebels remain a potent force, a report said Sunday. Army general Sarath Fonseka said in an interview with the Lakbima weekly newspaper that a military campaign to capture the rebel-held Wanni region in the north begun in March last year was moving according to plan. He however refused to give a timeframe for defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have fought for more than three decades to establish an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the Sinhalese-majority island. “They are an organised force with a lot of experience. They have thousands of fighters. I don’t conduct the war looking at deadlines and timeframes,” Fonseka said in the interview published Sunday. “Can a war that has been going on for more than 25 years be completed by March? But, what I say is - give us a chance.” Fonseka said the military had killed 5,000 Tiger rebels last year, without mentioning the total losses for security forces. However, he said 4,000 government soldiers had been wounded in the last two years, with half of them choosing to return to the battlefield. |
| Posted by:Fred |